What is the alternative?
And be realistic in giving the alternative.
First step!
Update the whole philosophy of what taxation is and how taxes are collected and how the funds are used that were collected from the taxes.
Ditch the colonial era mindset that one single budget can be made for Pakistan (or even India but that's a separate discussion).
We need to have two budgets.
1. Dollar budget (hard currency budget) - Defines what are the projected needs of dollar amount needed for every year in the next 10 years.
2. Rupee budget (soft or local currency budget) - Defines what are the projected needs of rupees needed for every year in the next 10 years.
Note: some items will be common on #1 and #2, but many will be different.
Note-2: America, UK etc. do not need separate items #1 and #2 because they use hard currency on every level. But Pakistan does not. We have multi currency system, thus we need multiple currency budget.
A) Any dollars earned by export, tourism, expat remittance will contribute to #1.
B) Any taxes collected from Pakistanis with local income/earnings will be in rupees. contributing to item #2
Any shortfall between 1 and A has to be fulfilled by loans, aid. The nation must know about it upfront
Any shortfall between 2 and B will be met by increase in chanda (contribution) or by printing money.
At this stage the budget (like British days) is just a mishmash of expenses and percentages, but it does not give a clear picture to the man on the street as to what exactly are the financial challenges and how we are going to meet the financial obligations.
think about this as a really simple example.
if your family wants to buy a car.
and there are multiple earners in the house.
--- Should you just go around getting x amount of money as tax?
--- Or first you explain that I need 20 lakhs to buy the car. let me know how much everyone can contribute.
--- and if we cannot come up with 20 lakhs, then we cannot buy the car we want. But perhaps a smaller car, or motorcycle, or even bicycle is the way to go.
or take the car loan, and figure out how to pay monthly installments.
Sadly,
Our governments are elected, but they seldom lay out the projected needs for 10 years.
and
they seldom educate the masses as to how we are going to meet our obligations in the budget #1 vs. budget #2.
As the people are not on board,
Guess what,
they look at tax collection as a one way street where a viceroy is snatching money in order to fill the pockets of a distant empire.
So in summary to your question.
We need clear and modern steps to setup budget type #1
And
new ways to to collect required funds for budget type #2
So far I have given you the driving philosophy that must be updated.
Next few posts will try to give specific budget items and the revenue/ expenditure plan.
thank you.