Yes, they don't but who is responsible? those who evade tax or whose who let them evade in return of bribe? Niaz saheb, governments are very powerful and they have all means and ways to make things happen provided they are sincere. Today you appoint an honest an independent chairman FBR and allow him to work independently and then see who does not pay tax. In Zia's time, almost 16% were paying tax, today hardly 8%. Why do we see such a drop in tax network? because until 1989, system was functioning somehow and then came thieves in the guise of democracy and here we are. Again, if the PM of the country, his entire cabinets, and 300 or so thieves sitting in the parliament don't pay tax, it would be plain absurd to expect ordinary people to pay tax especially when they get nothing in return of their taxes.
Your biggest tax leak occurs in the business community. All of these corner retail shops that sell you dry/green groceries earn shyt loads of income, yet none of them file taxes as a sole proprietor, why?
In the UK, even if you have a small kiosk set up on the road, and if you make the minimum income that is taxable, you have to pay tax on it. The thing is, the HMRC (UK revenue body) does not come looking for tax, they expect you to sign up, because if caught, the penalties will render you income-less in the future. Pakistan needs to do the same.
The problem is, if i am running a business, let say i import electronics from Thailand/China and sell them here in Karachi. Any income that i generate from that if it meets the minimum criteria, needs to be reported by me in tax. If i don't there is not way for the FBR to know what or how much i sold. The inventories/stock is always shown less, sales are shown less or maybe a fire or flood happened and you claim you lost your profits. This is fcuking bull shyt.
Toyota sold 50,000 new Corollas in one year.....where is the freaking money coming from to buy 1.5 million pkr to 2.0 million pkr cars? Clearly, the income tax class size cannot sustain such level of consumption.
If you look at everything over the past 10 years, consumerism has increased manifold....but consumers can only spend what they have....so yes, while the real net savings of the new middle class is less, people are spending more and more. So why is that the FBR revenues are not increasing? It's not the salaried class that can sustain so much demand. So the only option left for the government is to tax these products that are being consumed. A poor man does not give a shyt about 3G or 4G network. But i do. and i can afford it. Same thing with WHT on cars, bank transfers, property etc.
You will have to force the traders and businessmen to pay taxes or pay stiff penalties. You know, in the west the penalty for tax evasion is usually valued more than the tax that was evaded, to deter and teach a lesson. Plus, the major chunk of Agriculture produce. Fix these two, and you will quadruple your revenues within 5 years.