Corruption is a legacy of the colonial era spanning over a couple of centuries in this land and it is one of the major hurdles in the way of development. Unfortunately, every government has tried to curb corruption, but it always took action against corrupt elements rather than corruption. Corruption is a habit, a custom or an illegal system which has penetrated in every institution of the country. In other words, corruption has been institutionalized. The best way to stop corruption is to develop a mechanism to stop usage of the illegal money. The lacunae in laws to curb money laundering and to purchase real estate give a safe passage to the corrupt elements to use their illegal money and walk free. The government must plug the loopholes in the law and prevailing official system before assailing corrupt elements. However, the policymakers only concentrate on the collection of revenue rather than developing a mechanism to not only increase government revenues, but also streamline the tax collection affairs.
According to news reports, the federal and the provincial governments are going to adopt a new mechanism to classify the immovable property in different categories and revise and update its value every year. The Federal Board of Revenue has already endorsed a proposal of the Tax Reform Commission on the valuation and revaluation of the immovable property. The new mechanism is aimed at stopping the tendency of undervaluation of the property which is in practice to avoid payment of duties and taxes. However, the government is considering enacting a law to provide another mechanism to confiscate a property held by unnamed owners and transaction of money in the name of unidentified recipients. A draft of Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act 2015 has already been prepared for the purpose. It is important to note that unnamed transaction is an arrangement in which a property is held by a person on behalf of another person who has paid for it or a transaction is made for a property in a fictitious name or the owner of the property denies to knowledge the ownership of the property.
It is a good omen that the government is on the way to stop the usage of the corrupt money, but it also has to take stern measures to stop flight of black or white money out of the country. Various channels are being used to send money abroad and it is hard to imagine the ignorance of the government agencies to nab the people involved in this business. Tough laws are okay, but tough actions against delinquent officials should also be ensured.