THE disclosure that the FBR collected nearly Rs1.9tr in sales and income taxes through electricity bills over the past four years is hardly a matter of pride. Indeed, it shows that the tax system has come to depend on extracting ever more money from those it can easily reach rather than bringing the vast number of untaxed into the net. The revelation that Rs400bn to 500bn in adjustable income tax withholding goes unclaimed annually further exposes the system’s flaws: those outside the formal tax net are content with........

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