Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar at BBC HardTalk !

[Ozee]

When you speak up others listen
@django @PakSword @BHarwana @Okasha Zahid @Moonlight

https://twitter.com/x/status/1073254911834447872

How ridiculous is this...
Such a shameful act by BBC

 

[Zibago]

How ridiculous is this...
Such a shameful act by BBC

They tried to push their own national narrative through their media but cry foul when we do the same pathetic

 

[Ozee]

They tried to push their own national narrative through their media but cry foul when we do the same pathetic

Point to be noted sir .....we should do the same pathetic...so they will be undercontrol by the next time

 

[Zibago]

Point to be noted sir .....we should do the same pathetic...so they will be undercontrol by the next time

All we need to do is support the government in its take money out of media policy and start legal proceedings against all those who threaten national interests

 

[ghazi52]

BBC says omission of Kulbhushan remark from Asad Umar interview 'not an act of censorship'

A screengrab from Finance Minister Asad Umar's interview on BBC's Hardtalk programme.

After criticism from Pakistani Twitterati, the BBC on Thursday stated that the omission of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's mention from its interview with Finance Minister Asad Umar was "not an act of censorship" and that it was edited out because the programme was too long to be broadcast on TV.

In an interview to BBC’s Stephen Sackur for the well-known show Hardtalk, the minister answered questions regarding various issues of national importance. The TV version of the interview, however, did not contain his mention of Jadhav, who was sentenced to death in 2017 by a Pakistani military tribunal for his involvement in espionage.

"The reason Kulbhushan Jadhav’s name was deleted from the TV version of the HARDtalk interview with Asad Umar has a simple technical explanation," said a tweet from the programme's Twitter handle. "The recorded interview was too long for our broadcast slot and so had to be edited."


BBC HARDtalk

✔@BBCHARDtalk

The reason Kulbhushan Jadhav’s name was deleted from the TV version of the HARDtalk interview with Asad Umar has a simple technical explanation.
The recorded interview was too long for our broadcast slot and so had to be edited. This was done separately for radio and TV. 1/2


262
11:34 AM - Dec 13, 2018

The channel said Jadhav's name had been omitted from the TV version of the interview and not the radio version, and that it was not done to censor the minister's words.

Because "clearly confusion has been caused", the broadcaster said it would restore the omitted "short section" to the programme and air the new TV version again tonight as well as tomorrow morning.

✔@BBCHARDtalk

His name was omitted from the TV version. This was not an act of censorship, but clearly confusion has been caused, so we are happy to restore that short section to the TV broadcast and we’ll give the new programme an extra airing tonight as well as tomorrow morning. 2/2

BBC HARDtalk

✔@BBCHARDtalk

The reason Kulbhushan Jadhav’s name was deleted from the TV version of the HARDtalk interview with Asad Umar has a simple technical explanation.
The recorded interview was too long for our broadcast slot and so had to be edited. This was done separately for radio and TV. 1/2


611
11:35 AM - Dec 13, 2018

In the radio version, while answering a question regarding alleged threats to Chinese investment in Balochistan and the "anger" generated by it among some people in the province, Umar states: "This is not anger of the people of Balochistan, these are activities of sponsored terrorists who receive training, funding [and] material from outside Pakistan. And is there a serious attempt to try and destabilise Balochistan and through that, try and subvert CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor]? Of course, there is. There is a concerted effort to do that."

When pressed by the host on who these external forces were, the minister responds: "Led by India, of course. Pakistan arrested a senior operative from India, his name is Kulbhushan Jadhav; he is in the custody of Pakistan and he gave details of how the Indian intervention in Balochistan and others parts of Pakistan is taking place. So is there terrorist intervention in Balochistan? Absolutely yes, [but] what the people of Balochistan thought has been expressed through the free will of those people by electing a government of Balochistan which stands by CPEC, which wants greater engagement of CPEC in their province."

 

[Verve]

Because "clearly confusion has been caused", the broadcaster said it would restore the omitted "short section" to the programme and air the new TV version again tonight as well as tomorrow morning.

BBC taking a U-Turn!

This is what happens when you have an upright and straight talking government officials.

 

[Nilgiri]

few core reasons for such low tax net in my opinion are
1) lack of public trust in institutions that the funds will be used properly and they demand the results before even paying the taxes
2) process is to cumbersome for a common man and in their eyes the hassle is not worth it as repercussions for not paying up isn't bad in any way.
3)lack of proper computerized documentation of personal assets as you can't do much even if your whole tax department is running on state of the art networks and systems with best possible controls if the rest of your country's departments is still using paper.the problem is worsen by the reluctance that comes with the inter departmental info sharing.
4) corruption .why pay the government when you can pay only part of the sum to the munshi and get away with it .
5) lack of motivation to pay taxes. not everything needs to be punished but we aren't even properly incentivising the current tax payer ove non tax filer enough for them to make a case in our favor.
6) we are a democracy so can't take too many harsh actions. parties sitting in government can't afford to lose public.

Agree bro.

That is already known and being discussed on multiple threads since a long time ...that our tax base is a problem even the PM talked about it and now FM!

Yes, Pakistan hopefully will take steps to fix it now under this fresh start/reform based administration.

That is a dishonest statement actually, since it refers to direct income tax payers only. Pakistan has a highly regressive indirect taxation system where almost everybody is paying high rates, specially the middle and lower classes.

Well yah I am talking income tax base, I should have specified better.

I agree, if you look at indirect taxes etc, obviously the taxbase for that is going to be near 100% of the country (unless you are completely off the grid and self-sustaining). It seems these extractions are so much higher because the income tax base is very low (i.e to make up for it in some way....which is bad because like you said majority of people are consumers in middle and low income classes).

Keeping in mind what @Hell hound laid out, I think best approach would be to scale down the indirect tax rates (this would help curtail inflation too) and work to a system to widen the income tax base (and not go for huge tax rates there, but just get people onto the database). In fact maybe can look at the idea of giving full tax rebates or 0 tax rate below certain (high income) threshold (but at least have those ITR's filed and collated so names are on the system). Give some incentives for doing this. This way you broaden tax base (which will be handy lot later on, rather than starting it then ad hoc), but you are not extracting substantially more from GDP for govt (which needs more proven reform and proven confidence building among the electorate).

 

[Arsalan]

They tried to push their own national narrative through their media but cry foul when we do the same pathetic

Well before they cry foul our media would have already done that. The truth is, their media is under their control and will put national interests first. Our media is up for sale and will go for any narrative building, pro-Pakistan or anti-Pakistan once paid right!!
Their bigotry is just that they claim the total opposite to be true, that is, their media being free and ours oppressed. Nothing can be further from reality!

 

[ziaulislam]

Well before they cry foul our media would have already done that. The truth is, their media is under their control and will put national interests first. Our media is up for sale and will go for any narrative building, pro-Pakistan or anti-Pakistan once paid right!!
Their bigotry is just that they claim the total opposite to be true, that is, their media being free and ours oppressed. Nothing can be further from reality!

our leaders and journalist braig the opposite, they drink too much alcohol and claim that PM tried to kill them

 

[Zibago]

Well before they cry foul our media would have already done that. The truth is, their media is under their control and will put national interests first. Our media is up for sale and will go for any narrative building, pro-Pakistan or anti-Pakistan once paid right!!
Their bigotry is just that they claim the total opposite to be true, that is, their media being free and ours oppressed. Nothing can be further from reality!

But what this has done is expose them openly in the new media (SM) the narrative has been built in this incidence

Agree bro.



Yes, Pakistan hopefully will take steps to fix it now under this fresh start/reform based administration.



Well yah I am talking income tax base, I should have specified better.

I agree, if you look at indirect taxes etc, obviously the taxbase for that is going to be near 100% of the country (unless you are completely off the grid and self-sustaining). It seems these extractions are so much higher because the income tax base is very low (i.e to make up for it in some way....which is bad because like you said majority of people are consumers in middle and low income classes).

Keeping in mind what @Hell hound laid out, I think best approach would be to scale down the indirect tax rates (this would help curtail inflation too) and work to a system to widen the income tax base (and not go for huge tax rates there, but just get people onto the database). In fact maybe can look at the idea of giving full tax rebates or 0 tax rate below certain (high income) threshold (but at least have those ITR's filed and collated so names are on the system). Give some incentives for doing this. This way you broaden tax base (which will be handy lot later on, rather than starting it then ad hoc), but you are not extracting substantially more from GDP for govt (which needs more proven reform and proven confidence building among the electorate).

The government is trying to do that it will take time but we have a media that is crying foul because their gravy train was stopped I mean where on earth does a fired journalist claim that PM tried to assassinate him after getting his tyre burst while drunk driving?

We are seeing key reforms being introduced in excise and taxation I mean I am willing to give him more time

The economy will do better 2-3 months after the reforms are implemented it's not presto we are done

 

[Nilgiri]

The government is trying to do that it will take time but we have a media that is crying foul because their gravy train was stopped I mean where on earth does a fired journalist claim that PM tried to assassinate him after getting his tyre burst while drunk driving?

We are seeing key reforms being introduced in excise and taxation I mean I am willing to give him more time

The economy will do better 2-3 months after the reforms are implemented it's not presto we are done

I know how media works my friend....its the same all around world. India too the media went on hissy fit after Modi took power (and cut a lot of "courtesies" they took for granted)...and they are still not done.

 

[Zibago]

I know how media works my friend....its the same all around world. India too the media went on hissy fit after Modi took power (and cut a lot of "courtesies" they took for granted)...and they are still not done.

Nothing can compare to this in the world

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071353486955167744

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071355414481117184

When you hear media censorship in Pakistan remember these are the folks leading that fake catchphrase

 

[VCheng]

Well yah I am talking income tax base, I should have specified better.

I agree, if you look at indirect taxes etc, obviously the taxbase for that is going to be near 100% of the country (unless you are completely off the grid and self-sustaining). It seems these extractions are so much higher because the income tax base is very low (i.e to make up for it in some way....which is bad because like you said majority of people are consumers in middle and low income classes).

Keeping in mind what @Hell hound laid out, I think best approach would be to scale down the indirect tax rates (this would help curtail inflation too) and work to a system to widen the income tax base (and not go for huge tax rates there, but just get people onto the database). In fact maybe can look at the idea of giving full tax rebates or 0 tax rate below certain (high income) threshold (but at least have those ITR's filed and collated so names are on the system). Give some incentives for doing this. This way you broaden tax base (which will be handy lot later on, rather than starting it then ad hoc), but you are not extracting substantially more from GDP for govt (which needs more proven reform and proven confidence building among the electorate).

Pakistan must make fundamental changes, including moving to a progressive, rather than regressive, taxation system that taxes agricultural income as well, but I do not see that happening for a long long time. Those who control the system are loathe to pay taxes themselves.

 

[ziaulislam]

If Asad Umer manages to put Pakistan on an right economic path in few years time than I can see him as next PM of Pakistan from PTI after Imran Khan(mind you, much older and calmer Imran Khan can become President of Pakistan by then, say 2028 onwards). Asad Umer got the most difficult ministry among all and so far, he is doing a good job.

I voted for asad umar not imran khan to be honest

 

[Nilgiri]

I voted for asad umar not imran khan to be honest

Interesting, why's that?