New Delhi: Nearly a month after the Shehbaz Sharif government imposed taxes on the foreign allowance given to diplomats posted abroad, protest is now echoing in Islamabad and beyond, pouring in from capitals of the world. Career diplomat Tehmina Janjua, who has served three former Pakistani prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan, and Imran Khan, has said that the move by the coalition government is “insensible” and will “affect the morale and functioning of missions abroad”.
“Deduction of allowances of officials posted abroad is a thoroughly insensible measure. Will gravely affect the morale and functioning of our missions abroad. And the supposed economic benefits? Inconsequential. The decision needs urgent review,” tweeted Januja.
The Pakistan government’s decision has also received severe criticism from serving foreign officers and diplomats.
The Foreign Office has protested the decision and senior officials from the ministry have threatened to shut down Foreign Office and Pakistan embassies and consulates abroad. They have written to Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to take up the matter immediately with the finance ministry, reported The Nation. The officers have alleged the Pakistan Administrative Service and officers in the finance ministry are imposing this tax to deprive foreign service officers of their financial benefits.
On 24 June, the Shehbaz Sharif government imposed a maximum income tax of 35 per cent on those earning over PKR one million monthly in Pakistan, based on proposed amendments to the Finance Bill 2022. It also imposed taxes on the foreign allowance given to diplomats posted abroad.
The Sharif government withdrew the tax relief announced by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on 10 June, after demands from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Instead, it increased tax rates on the salaried class, imposing on the public PKR 33 billion in net additional taxes and forcing them to shoulder the PKR 80 billion burden.
“We tried to get maximum concessions from the IMF for the salaried class but it did not completely accept our position,” Miftah had told The Express Tribune.
The finance ministry’s imposed taxes on the foreign service officers also apply on their entertainment allowance, education subsidy, government accommodation and almost every facility available to officers posted in other countries.
Anas Mallick, journalist with WION tweeted, “In an ill-thought-out move, the government has imposed income tax on the foreign allowance of Pakistani diplomats, give that the last revision on the foreign allowance was in 2011, with rising inflation worldwide, the government is robbing Pakistan’s diplomats undue and then expects them to deliver.”
According to The Nation report, the annual tax imposed on the foreign allowance will exceed the government’s allowance given to officers and staff. In view of the global financial recession and price hike, officers believe this increased tax rate would make it difficult for them to sustain a life abroad. “The officers believe that in this situation it would be difficult to run their kitchen abroad keeping in view the global financial recession and price hike. The Foreign Ministry also protested against Finance Ministry discriminatory policy on transport facility to foreign service officers,” the report said.
The officers also protested the government’s exclusion of the Foreign Ministry in receiving the recently announced 150 per cent (1.5 times) raise in the basic salaries of all the government officers in grade 17 to 22. Top bureaucrats are expected to get a raise between Rs 150,000 to Rs 200,000. The government excluded the Foreign office noting that its administration does not fall under the Establishment Division, the human resource arm of the Pakistan government. However, the Foreign office believes it is entitled to such allowances.
This is not the first time Pakistan’s Foreign office and Embassies have struggled with issues of underfunding. The Pakistan Embassy in the United States ran out of funds last year to pay employee salaries for more than four months. Geo News reported late last year that as money was diverted to purchase ventilators and other medical equipment after the Covid-19 pandemic, the Pakistan Community Welfare, which pays the embassy’s locally hired staff, ran out of funds.
Source: The Print
