The much-deliberated spectre of tax avoidance once again reared its ugly head on Wednesday when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published a publicly-accessible database of as many as 175,000 off-shore companies in the Bahamas. More than 150 Pakistani businessmen and politicians found to be involved with these accounts by the leaks further intensify the need to investigate the Panamanian scandal, which has not yet been resolved.
\nAs perfectly described by the US President Barack Obama in the wake of the Panama revelations, the issue of global tax avoidance has, indeed, emerged as a \u201chuge problem\u201d that continues to be in play unchecked because of the loopholes in the system. This is particularly true for countries like Pakistan whose failures in overcoming taxation crises have set forth the illicit trend of tax evasion. Across the world, the rich and the influential are increasingly being exposed of advancing their personal agendas at the expense of national reserves. Prevalent loopholes in the tax reforms highly facilitate these tax dodgers in taking advantage of the system. The fact that Apple, a technological consumer products company, often finds itself under fire for not paying its due taxes in countries where it sells its products as well as holding $181.1 billion overseas clearly validates the global nature of this phenomenon.
\nHowever, the practice holds even greater significance in Pakistan since its critical dearth of investment in the public sector has already manifested in shambolic health and education sectors. It is high time that the authorities realised the urgency to investigate all perpetrators involved in these leaks on top of soliciting additional trails from other tax havens. Such reforms would not only greatly alleviate many crucial problems plaguing all developmental programmes in the country but also help establish it as a credible partner for all international collaborations. The former director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Pakistan, Marc-Andr\u00e9 Franche, talked at length about the same apathy shown by the Pakistani elite towards the dismal conditions of their own country. He had also opined that a critical change would only happen in Pakistan if its influential class, politicians and the wealthy sacrifice their short-term, individual and family interests for the benefit of the nation. A wonderful first step towards realising this goal could be setting forth a breed of tax-complying Pakistanis who are willing to pay the income taxes they are eligible for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The much-deliberated spectre of tax avoidance once again reared its ugly head on Wednesday when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published a publicly-accessible database of as many as 175,000 off-shore companies in the Bahamas. More than 150 Pakistani businessmen and politicians found to be involved with these accounts by the leaks further intensify the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n