Charity highlights tax dodging
Christian Aid urges the government to help Pakistan tackle tax dodging
Christian Aid has urged the government to help Pakistan boost its disastrously low tax revenues by breaking down global financial secrecy and helping the country get information on Pakistani citizens’ accounts in Britain and other tax havens.
Tax dodging by Pakistani citizens is having a devastating effect on the ability of the government of Pakistan to invest in protecting its people from natural disasters.
‘Tax dodging is currently the norm rather than the exception in Pakistan,’ the charity stated, ‘with both companies and individuals evading taxes on a staggering scale.
‘This deprives the country of the funds it needs to provide essential services such as health care, clean water and education, as well as disaster prevention and human development for millions of people living in poverty.’
Christian Aid gave evidence to MPs on parliament’s International Development Committee. The Committee is conducting an inquiry into UK aid to Pakistan.
‘One important way for the UK to help Pakistan become less aid-reliant is to assist it in catching up with tax dodgers. Part of the answer is to help the Pakistani tax authority get access to information about the finances of Pakistani citizens’ offshore accounts,’ said Joe Stead, senior economic justice adviser at Christian Aid.
Fewer than two per cent of its citizens pay income tax. Pakistan is heavily dependent on foreign aid and unable to fund basic public services, leaving tens of millions of its 177 million people living in extreme poverty. Lack of tax revenue also has a devastating effect on Pakistan’s ability to invest in protecting its people from the many disaster risks which threaten them, including earthquakes, cyclones, droughts and floods.
Pakistan’s national disaster response system focuses mainly on responding to emergencies and ignores the need to prevent disasters by tackling their root causes, Christian Aid’s evidence to the MPs asserted.
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