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Black Saturday’ for the salaried class
Saadia Khalid
Islamabad
People were left aghast by the time they realised as to what were
the assertions made by Minister of State for Finance and Economic
Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar in the budget that she presented for the
fiscal year 2009-10 on Saturday.
According to the people, it was nothing but a ‘Black Saturday’ for
the poor salaried class people of the country, as if it was not
enough that besides getting the income tax deducted at source they
were made to pay all sorts of taxes and duties on each and every
consumer item that they are compelled to buy out of necessity, now
the government has burdened them with more taxes and duties.
“It is absolutely false that the poor and low income segment of the
society has not been burdened by any new taxes, but the fact is that
each and every tax imposed on other items would be recovered from
us, the poor salaried class,” said Ayesha Murtaza, a housewife. She
said that because other people hardly care to pay any taxes and even
if they do they manage to get away with a big chunk of money that
they owe to the government by paying a meagre amount to the people
who know how to manipulate laws and rules and shift the whole burden
to the salaried class throughout the country.
The women were of the opinion that although the budget had been
presented by the first ever woman finance minister of the country
yet it had very few to facilitate the women as far as the household
budget was concerned.
While talking to ‘The News’ they said that they had high hopes from
the government and were expecting huge relief this time, but all
there hopes and aspirations could not materialised. “The increase in
salaries in undoubtedly a major step taken by the government for the
relief of government employees,” said Fiza Iftikhar while adding
that something was better than nothing. She however said that the
increase in the salaries was not according to the inflation
prevailing in the country. “The increase in salary must be according
to the inflationary trend in the country,” she said. Another
housewife, Imtiaz Shaheen said, “What we were expecting this time
was a considerable decrease in utility bills, but the government
announced the reduction of subsidy in electricity and gas tariffs,
which would ultimately increase the bills.”
Shaheen said that almost half of their income is spent on the
utility bills, but the government further burdened them by
announcing 10 per cent increase in electricity bills despite
facilitating them in this regard. “We can either feed our children
or pay the utility bills in the current inflationary trend,” she
added.
The women also feared the increase in the prices of petroleum
products as a result of the imposition of specific carbon surcharge.
“Whenever the prices of petroleum products increase it has a direct
impact on household budget,” said Seema Agha. Agha said that the
increase of petroleum products have an impact on the prices of
vegetables to the prices of luxury goods. “It’s very obvious as the
mobility charges increase with the increase in the petroleum
products,” she said.
A workingwoman, Rafia Mahmood said that the tax relaxation was
indeed a praiseworthy step taken by the government. “At least the
women had been given extra privilege when it comes to the tax
relaxation,” she added. Mahmood said that increasing the limit for
the exemption on Income Tax for salaried female from Rs240,000 to
Rs260,000 although was not satisfactory yet at least something had
been done to facilitate the women.
On the other hand 50 per cent relief in the tax liability of the
senior citizens had been partially hailed by the people in general
as majority were of the opinion that the senior citizens should be
exempted from the tax. “At least the limit for the senior tax payers
must have been much more than what has been currently announced
Rs750,000,” said Shahida Zulfiqar.
The
News: Sunday, June 14, 2009 |
