With the wealthy flourishing and the poor fighting for survival, uneven taxation strikes a dissonant chord.
Present-day Pakistan seems to be dealing with a number of issues. Energy crisis, economic recessions, and political uncertainty create a complex situation, which is brutally upsetting the lower sections of society.
The current trend of shocking extraordinary electricity bills seems to be breaking the backbone of the oppressed in the country. The poor people of Pakistan find themselves under the load of monetary disasters, which are principally away from their control.
People poured into the streets to protest against the unwarrantable climb in energy rates, and some even went to the extent of burning their bills. In the environment of rising bills and the subsequent outbreak of demonstrations, the caretaker government with the federal cabinet decided to provide relief to the people.
To achieve this goal, in the emergency meeting the Ministry of Energy gave varied suggestions before the federal cabinet. The contemplations comprised the choice to pay bills in more than two parts, reducing the tax on the bills, and conceivably confiscating free-electricity privileges for the members of the power sector and government officers.
However, the meeting did not produce the anticipated results, and the government stated that it could not represent these proposals before getting the approval of the International Monetary Fund.
One of the main causes of high electricity bills is the government’s high taxation policy. This shows that the lower and middle socio-economic classes suffer from most of these poor policies more than any other section of society, a point that cannot be underemphasized.
In a country where economic inequalities are conspicuous, with the advantaged maintaining their status and the disadvantaged struggling to put food on the table and survive, such uneven taxation is quite unfair. The federal government allocated a hefty budget for the parliament members while basic needs like affordable electricity get away from the masses.
It explains well how those in power grab the best at the cost of poor persons in this country. This exacerbates socio-economic inequalities, driving the lower sections of society further into the worst situation to pay off for the happenings leading to the shortfall.
Pakistan gets over a third of its annual electricity requirements by means of imported natural gas. The international crisis led to a climb in the prices making it challenging for Pakistan because of the country’s already incredible economy.
With the start of the year 2023, the government employed diverse methods to save energy, bringing about long spells of power cuts. In spite of these troubles, the government in Pakistan appears powerless to fix the main concerns of the country.
In order to end the menace of economic crisis, Pakistan will have to take long-standing, wise policy actions. Concerning the power generation misfortune, the World Bank proposes that Pakistan has abundant potential to generate wind and solar energy.
The World Bank in its report revealed that the utilization of merely 0.071% of the country’s land for solar energy generation could meet the electricity demands. Investment in renewable sources of energy can help to make power affordable for the citizens in addition to achieving the goal of energy security. The matter boils down to setting the priorities straight.
Due to the extremely unreliable politico-economic environment, Pakistan has already witnessed shocking occurrences in the current year. Increasing rapidly the speed of inflation, along with the growing rate of joblessness and other problems, seems to disturb the sense of right and wrong of the masses.
Maybe other elements are also significant in giving upsurge to these disturbing events, but the economic afflictions seem to be taking the lead in creating such a picture.
