Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Case for Pakistan’s Loan write off’ Category

The degree of the sovereignty of a country, is directly proportional to the state of economy of that nation. Actually, in constant growth & development lies our salvation. Secondly, we Pakistanis must know, that without any doubt, the easiest and surest way of moving ahead, is to stand on our own feet.

Foreign aid, can keep us afloat, but won’t allow us to swim.

Now the time has come to separate the growth, development, education, eradication of poverty & security of Pakistan, from the politics, forever.

In this regard, it is suggested that, we should aim to bring Pakistan, to the level of Singapore of 2010, by the year 2030. All politics & other considerations should be made subservient to this target for 2030, even if we have to abolish weekly holidays for the next 20 years & reduce our daily sleeping time to 6 hours.

All stake holders in Pakistan must immediately come forward for deciding about the direction of the future of the nation.

Biggest factor in any victory is self-confidence. Anti-thesis of terrorism is education, coupled with economic emancipation.

As such, the nation must embark upon the following agenda, to resurrect our economy without any further loss of time.
 
1. Request to all foreign donors for a 5 years moratorium, on all debt repayments by Pakistan, which is a frontline state of the world’s war on terror.  
 
2. 20% per annum reduction in all non-developmental government expenditures, plus total freeze in all perks paid from the national exchequer, involving foreign currency.
 
3.Maximum tax rate on each and every type of income in Pakistan should be fixed at 10%. This will not only bring huge revenues to the government but will also discourage the tax evasion tendencies.
 
4. Increase in productivity & exports with liberal tax relief  to industry, commerce & trade.
 
5. Set a target for 20% per annum increase in foreign remittances, by offering innovative incentives to expatriate Pakistanis.
 
6. Abolish FBR (which will alone increase income by Rs.500 billion) & impose flat 10% tax on all & every type of income (as already mentioned at 3. above), without any exemption (except for the security forces personnel, whose salaries may be doubled with expected receipt of un-precedented  increase in revenue, due to this formula). This will not only reduce income tax burden on salaried class (with max. tax rate of 10%) but will also result in so much increase in revenues, to the extent that government will not require any tax imposition  in the budget. Plus, the government will be able to give tax free salaries to all armed forces, rangers, police and other security agencies personnel, who are shedding their blood, in fighting the menace of terrorism, for our safe tomorrow.
 
7. Initiate steps (by imposing economic emergency) to bring each and every economic activity under document.  

I am more than confident that by the dint of sheer hard work, sincerity & honesty, which is imbibed in the bones of Pakistani work force, we can surely bring Pakistan, into the comity of 20 developed nations of the world, in the next 15-20 years.

 “I could end the deficit  in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that  anytime there is a deficit of  more than three percent of GDP all sitting members of  congress are ineligible for reelection. “

Why not put it up to Pakistani parliament!!!

I take this opportunity to advise Mr. Robert Zoellick, that the constant problem of getting funding for the WB can rather, easily be tackled, by laying more emphasis on the counter corruption measures for governments of the Aid Recipient Countries (ARCs).

Moreover, this counter corruption strategy (CCS) will provide manifold benefits, both to the WB & the ARCs.

Just to elaborate the above proposal, it should be understood that mainly the corruption has two roots i.e. direct kick backs and denying installing regimens, that puts full stop to the leakages of billions of dollars of government revenues.

In this regard, Turkey could be cited as a glaring example, where government revenues increased manifolds, when one of such systems was put into practise, on cigarette industry.

In case, World Bank under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Mr. Robert Zoellick, needs my assistance on the proposal, I shall be too glad to offer my services, which may help improve the living conditions of the poor & the suffering people of the world.

Senate of Pakistan has passed a resolution calling writing off of entire debt of Pakistan. President, PM & Interior Minister, Mr. Rehman Malik, are on record, demanding loan write off for Pakistan. Also, Oxfam has campaigned internationally for write off of Pakistan’s Foreign debt.

However, our worthy Finance Minister, Hafeez Sheikh, has the guts to say that Pakistan will not seek debt waiver. And in fact, he is negotiating more & more loans for Pakistan. (Why stars should then be thy friend’s enemy? Huway Tum Dost Jiskay Dushman Uska Aasman Kuion Hoo.)