PTIs economic policy proposals: flawed and tried-and-failed

Mansoor Khan

Senator (1k+ posts)
& @jagga9

Mansoor, to tell you the truth. I am confused. There is alot of contradiction. Also, alot of what they have proposed was actually PRACTICED by Musharraf! Kya huwa? Yes.. it was helpful lekin it wasnt sustainable.. like tax collection drives.. Remember NAB? Mujhe batao PTI ne aysa kiya KAHA hai jo Musharraf ne nahi kiya?

Here is how I see it. If a politicians isnt willing to speak of these, be assured, he wont change anything.
1. Land Reform. Bring every inch of land under documentation via titlement. If you own a land, register with the Govt's Titlement office. Theek? Then every year you pay 1~3% of the value of that property. Value assessment : Suppose your property value is Rs10lakh and you claim its Rs5lakh. Titlement office can then force you to sell your land to the Govt for Rs 5 lakh. Titlement office will make a profit by selling that land in open market. The profit will serve as bonus for the Titlement Office employees. Now employees of Entitlement office have the incentive to go after those who lowball their property prices. Also, if you dont pay your property tax, for 3 years, you cant sell your property till the balance is cleared. Once balance = to the value of the property, you loose the property.

This takes care of Land/Tax reforms.

Then comes the Monetary policy - Default on External debt. Withdraw from IMF. Dump your dollar holdings and buy SILVER/Gold to back your currency. Get rid of this so-called Modern Money theory of Central Banking. Convert money from debt to equity. Govt pays nothing to the central bank on issued notes/treasuries. Also for your exports, demand your own currency to provide it a market support.

I have written about Govt administration here.
http://blogs.thenews.com.pk/blogs/2012/02/the-great-provincial-divide/

About the export/Monetary Policy
http://blogs.thenews.com.pk/blogs/2011/12/we-make-it-the-‘mighty’-dollar/



There's more which I will be writing about in terms of taxation.
hmmmmm. but is there anything that can be done? its worry yaar
 

ahsanuck

MPA (400+ posts)
Here is one of the practical solution to tackle major problem of business community [HI]" Taxation System"[/HI]....
& @jagga9

Mansoor, to tell you the truth. I am confused. There is alot of contradiction. Also, alot of what they have proposed was actually PRACTICED by Musharraf! Kya huwa? Yes.. it was helpful lekin it wasnt sustainable.. like tax collection drives.. Remember NAB? Mujhe batao PTI ne aysa kiya KAHA hai jo Musharraf ne nahi kiya?

Here is how I see it. If a politicians isnt willing to speak of these, be assured, he wont change anything.
1. Land Reform. Bring every inch of land under documentation via titlement. If you own a land, register with the Govt's Titlement office. Theek? Then every year you pay 1~3% of the value of that property. Value assessment : Suppose your property value is Rs10lakh and you claim its Rs5lakh. Titlement office can then force you to sell your land to the Govt for Rs 5 lakh. Titlement office will make a profit by selling that land in open market. The profit will serve as bonus for the Titlement Office employees. Now employees of Entitlement office have the incentive to go after those who lowball their property prices. Also, if you dont pay your property tax, for 3 years, you cant sell your property till the balance is cleared. Once balance = to the value of the property, you loose the property.

This takes care of Land/Tax reforms.

Then comes the Monetary policy - Default on External debt. Withdraw from IMF. Dump your dollar holdings and buy SILVER/Gold to back your currency. Get rid of this so-called Modern Money theory of Central Banking. Convert money from debt to equity. Govt pays nothing to the central bank on issued notes/treasuries. Also for your exports, demand your own currency to provide it a market support.

I have written about Govt administration here.
http://blogs.thenews.com.pk/blogs/2012/02/the-great-provincial-divide/

About the export/Monetary Policy
http://blogs.thenews.com.pk/blogs/2011/12/we-make-it-the-‘mighty’-dollar/



There's more which I will be writing about in terms of taxation.
 

jangjoo786

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
میں تو صرف ایک بات جانتا ہوں۔
چار چار اور پانچ پانچ بار ان دو پارٹیوں کو آزما چکے ہیں۔
ایک بار عمران خان کو بھی ازمانا چاہیے۔
اگر خدانخواستہ ناکام ہو بھی گیا
تو کم ازکم اپنی جیب تو نہیں بھریگا۔
کیونکہ عمران خان میں لاکھ براییاں اور خرابیاں سہی۔
لیکن ایک بات میں قسم کھا کے کہ سکتا ہوں
کہ وہ کرپٹ بالکل نہیں۔
 

AsifAmeer

Siasat.pk - Blogger
We may or may not agree with Sheikh, lekin 1 should give credit to him for atleast trying to look into the matter.

1st of all. There isnt alot of detail here. Plus I feel Sheikh has surrounded himself with either Business men or Academia. Nothing wrong with them. But he needs to have a cup of coffee with Fixed Income and Derivatives traders in Singapore and London. Maybe have a chit chat with a Central Banker too.

Masla transactional taxation ka ye hai k it discourages commerce! yup! Let me give you a simple example. Suppose I live in Faisalabad and I find this new job in Karachi. I have to sell my apartment in Faisalabad and move to khi. But I would have to pay transactional tax on my (suppose) Rs50 lakh apartment. Let's say its 1% trasactional tax. That makes it Rs 50,000. Now I have to think twice before accepting that job.

Masla ye aajata hai k if profit margin on a trade falls below a certain %, that activity will have to be stopped, even if its profitable. You see what I am saying?

I dont know if you read my recommendation on taxation/Land reform. I am suggesting Land/Wealth taxation, which Sheikh is denouncing. And here are the reasons.
1. A rich man cant just buy a farm and just lock up the land because at the end of the year he has to pay taxes on that land.
2. I know alot of Pakistani Ex-pats (including my parents), who own a house in Pakistan which has been locked up empty for years. They dont rent it, they dont sell it. No economic value is created. Now imagine if there was a 1% property tax on it. Rs1Crore will force the owner to pay Rs 1 lakh in taxes every year. My parents would either be forced to sell the property or rent it out. This Wealth taxation will discourage setting asset idle.

I am pretty libertarian by nature and this taxation doesnt fit my philosophy too well but when one realizes the fact that the State provides, roads, common defence, Power, water, schools and civic services, there are bound to be costs. So if you own a property, you pay for those services. If you rent, then those costs are already built into your rent amount.
@mrk123 [MENTION=23319]Temojin[/MENTION] [MENTION=28031]Aleph[/MENTION]

Here's my previous quote
Here is how I see it. If a politicians isnt willing to speak of these, be assured, he wont change anything.1. Land Reform. Bring every inch of land under documentation via titlement. If you own a land, register with the Govt's Titlement office. Theek? Then every year you pay 1~3% of the value of that property. Value assessment : Suppose your property value is Rs10lakh and you claim its Rs5lakh. Titlement office can then force you to sell your land to the Govt for Rs 5 lakh. Titlement office will make a profit by selling that land in open market. The profit will serve as bonus for the Titlement Office employees. Now employees of Entitlement office have the incentive to go after those who lowball their property prices. Also, if you dont pay your property tax, for 3 years, you cant sell your property till the balance is cleared. Once balance = to the value of the property, you loose the property.


This takes care of Land/Tax reforms.



Then comes the Monetary policy - Default on External debt. Withdraw from IMF. Dump your dollar holdings and buy SILVER/Gold to back your currency. Get rid of this so-called Modern Money theory of Central Banking. Convert money from debt to equity. Govt pays nothing to the central bank on issued notes/treasuries. Also for your exports, demand your own currency to provide it a market support.

Here is one of the practical solution to tackle major problem of business community [HI]" Taxation System"[/HI]....
 

mrk123

Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
I am not sure who this guy is but reading your post it seems that he has worked for the world bank.

One of the most striking point to note is that while pointing out to the shortcoming in the PTI's plan never specifically prescribe any alternatives. In fact he himself indulges in putting forth vague and cliched solutions - which probably are found in every handbook of guidelines or rather directives when they hand you the money.

A world bank advisor like Mr Abid Hasan can only come to this conclusion....
Even if he is a genuine PTI supporter his faith in Neoliberal economics is far greater...

His ideological pining can be seen here:
This is a long standing WB cure all for developing countries.
Privatising the power generation sector and some distribution (like KESC) have pushed the country of the financial cliff. Sure PIA can be privatised but utilities will always lead to disaster.
He wants us to end up like other WB inspired experiments like what Bechtal did to the ppl of Cochabamba.



Union busting is another prescription. Yet in the 60 and 50 when unions were more robust workers rights were protected and the pakistani middle class came into being. After the 90's when Benazir inaugrated the neoliberal experiment and unions have been essentially destroyed workers are far more exploited and real wages have bottomed out.

This one is hilarious. Pakistan deranged policy of importing furnace oil to burn for power generation has a ardent supporter in WB. The fact Pakistan is sitting on one of the world biggest coal reserves isnt of concern.
You know Samar Mubarakmand is on record saying a WB team tild him due to Indias concern over environmental polltion he was told WB didnt think the Thar power generation was fesable leading to his quixotic USG project.
The fact is WB wants to increase Pakistan dependence on imported oil to maintain its leverage so Pakistan can be made to dig it self deeper into the Neoliberal abyss...

On theft which is one of the highest in the world , MR abid hassan is a dove. Most theft is done by industrial customers and its captive power plants. If regulators dont go after them I dont know who will. Who else will make Ittefaq steel pay 9 years worth of power bills???


Lol more sales tax. More inflation. No no PTI is completely out of its mind to aim for a progressive tax net like in Developed countries. Make the consumer pay. No wealth taxes,property taxes, Agricultural taxes, Capital gain tax,Income taxes just more sales taxes. Does this make any sense to anyone. Let the land owners and industrialist get away with all the money which they send over seas and tax the working class and middle class to run the government. Ingenious idea.


I couldnt be happier that this WB douche finds PTI economic policy disappointing
. It means they have gotten things right. You cant name a single country in the world that has developed following the prescription of the IMF and WB.
This fact isnt accidental.

 
I appreciate your effort, very good work with evidence and cannot agree with you more. Anyone who proposes PRIVATIZATION of PIA, PUBLIC TRANSIT, HEALTH CARE, SECURITY, EDUCATION should consider the results of 1)Privatizing tube system in U.K. 2) Privatizing Public transport in Florida 3) Security in USA. Even the inventors of PRIVATIZATION are reverting back to nationalization of these services (having learned the hard way).
Many people do not know how these International (specifically US and UK based lending and INVESTMENT agencies work and for what purposes). Anyways, whoever this guy is wrong in assessing PTI's economic policy, PTI is very correct in SELECTIVE PRIVATIZATION.
 
Well what they have stated in their economic policy is not "contradictory". The base of their plan is upon a PILOT project which was tried, tested, and successfully implemented many years back, not only in Karachi but in other developing countries as well. Now where all of us get confused is "IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURE". But need not to get confused because they will provide that ACTION PAPER also, furthermore implementation is always an ONGOING procedure, You apply the model, set the goals, evaluate the results, re-apply with modifications, reapply....and it keeps on till you achieve the goals.
 

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