Despite recent optimism surrounding Pakistan’s economy, the country is facing an “existential crisis” stemming from its woeful tax collection rates and inability to finance itself, a report said Wednesday. Pakistan’s economy grew at 4.24 per cent during the 2014-2015 fiscal year with per capita income rising a significant 9.25 per cent, markers that come as investor confidence in the long-underperfoming South Asian giant have also increased. But according to the report by non-profit organisation Raftar, funded by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID), Pakistan’s economy continues to rely heavily on “commercial loans, concessionary donor loans and aid”. For one, it is ironic to note a donor-funded effort trying to remind the country of its growing dependence on donor support. Then the report’s presentation of its core data contradicts itself in different places, leaving it to the reader to check the underlying assumption behind each discrepancy. From the tax-to-GDP ratio, which is given as 9.4pc in the accompanying press release and brochure and 10.4pc in the body of the report itself, to other key fiscal expenditure items, data discrepancies sprinkled throughout the report inadvertently highlight the difficulties involved in building any consensus on economic policy — and if we are not clear on the numbers then the rest of the conversation cannot begin. Getting the numbers right can be a harder job than most people imagine. In Pakistan, the economic numbers themselves have been politicised, creating an environment where building a consensus on a core economic agenda has become even more complicated than it was previously. Not only that, messaging economic challenges in a public space dominated by shrill breaking news is problematic in itself, forcing those who try to indulge in this exercise to resort to some hyperbole which sounds unconvincing to most ears. Nevertheless, the report is an effort in good faith to draw attention to a vital weakness in the structure of the state in Pakistan.
pk.shafaqna.com
