The Hindu National
중도 성향
기타
"COMPLETES" · 총 33건
필터 보기현재 지수
50.3
0 = 부정 우세
50 = 중립
100 = 긍정 우세
최근 7일 기준 88,811건을 분석한 결과, 뉴스 심리지수는 50.2(균형)입니다. 긍정 4,408건(5.0%)·중립 82,234건(92.6%)·부정 2,169건(2.4%)이며, 중립 비중이 뚜렷하게 높습니다. 성향 지수는 종합 14.7(중도 균형)입니다.
England's Ollie Robinson completes a five-wicket haul on his return to Test cricket against New Zealand at Lord's
National Doughnut Day completes 88 years: Everything to know where to get free ones America is set to celebrate National Doughnut Day, which has a rich history of 88 years. The annual fiesta is celebrated on the first Friday in June, and this time it falls on Friday, June 5,...
EVERY June, Pakistan’s budget season follows a familiar pattern: business groups repeat their proposals for relief, the government defends its targets, and taxpayers prepare for additional burdens. Yet a more fundamental question is rarely asked — what is the budget ultimately meant to achieve, and does it reflect a clear long-term national purpose? In principle, the budget is the state’s main instrument for promoting growth, improving public services, reducing poverty and raising living standards. In Pakistan, however, it has increasingly come to resemble an accounting exercise: mobilise sufficient revenue to finance a growing state and meet fiscal benchmarks agreed with the IMF. The result is a lopsided process that remains focused on extracting more from those already within the tax net, while paying insufficient attention to the quality of public spending, the need to broaden the base, or the incentives required for investment, employment and productivity. The Tax Policy Office was expected to introduce a longer-term perspective to this debate, but that wider vision is still not evident. The burden continues to fall, predictably, on the formal economy. Corporations, salaried employees, entrepreneurs, exporters, documented businesses and investors remain the most visible and therefore the most easily taxed. What receives much less scrutiny is whether public spending is yielding meaningful improvements in citizens’ lives, particularly in a country where a large share of the population remains below the poverty line. Pakistan has absorbed much of the fiscal cost of devolution without fully realising its potential efficiency gains. This distortion has become more pronounced since the 18th Constitutional Amendment altered Pakistan’s fiscal structure. Health, education, labour welfare and other social services were devolved to the provinces, which now receive a substantial share of national revenues through the National Finance Commission Award. The logic was straightforward: provinces, being closer to citizens, would deliver services more effectively, while the federal government would gradually withdraw from devolved functions and reduce its own size and cost. That second part of the arrangement, however, remains largely unfulfilled. More than a decade later, successive governments have shown limited willingness to undertake the constitutional, administrative and institutional reforms required to right-size the federation. Pakistan has, therefore, absorbed much of the fiscal cost of devolution without fully realising its potential efficiency gains. The results are plain: weak learning, poor healthcare access, child malnutrition, low productivity, millions of children out of school, under-equipped hospitals, inadequate skills training and persistently low female labour-force participation. Yet, even against this backdrop, the provinces are expected to post a combined budget surplus of roughly Rs1.6 trillion. This surplus forms part of the consolidated fiscal framework that enables Pakistan to meet primary surplus targets under the IMF programme. Fiscal discipline is necessary; Pakistan’s record on deficits and debt leaves little room for complacency. But every rupee retained as surplus is also a rupee not directed towards schools, hospitals, technical training and local services. The balance appears to have shifted too far towards meeting accounting targets and too little towards building human capital. The irony is that while existing taxpayers are repeatedly told there is little room for relief, substantial untapped capacity exists elsewhere. Agriculture contributes nearly a quarter of GDP but remains lightly taxed, while property taxation is among the weakest in the region. Large agricultural and urban wealth holdings generate limited recurring revenue because assessment remains weak, enforcement uneven and valuations often disconnected from market reality. Since provinces have constitutional authority over agricultural income and property taxes, meaningful reform in these areas could broaden the base, improve fairness and reduce the state’s dependence on taxing the same formal businesses and individuals year after year. It would also help strengthen the sense that the fiscal burden is being shared more equitably. The next budget should therefore reset fiscal priorities. Rather than treating compliant taxpayers as an inexhaustible source of revenue, policymakers should present a credible path towards relief for documented economic activity: lower excessive tax rates on salaried employees, entrepreneurs and businesses, phase out the Super Tax, remove distortionary levies, reduce cascading taxation and bring greater predictability to policy. Better incentives would support investment, exports, formalisation and job creation — the key objectives of fiscal policy. But relief must be matched by credible efforts to broaden the tax base, improve spending efficiency and mobilise provincial revenues from agriculture and property. Fiscal sustainability cannot rest indefinitely on squeezing a shrinking pool of compliant taxpayers. Provinces, meanwhile, should be judged less by the size of their surpluses than by measurable gains in education, healthcare, skills, productivity and poverty reduction. Pakistan’s fiscal debate remains confined to the narrow question of how to raise more revenue. The more important issue is how public finances can create opportunity, improve living standards and support durable growth. A budget should be more than a balancing exercise between revenue and expenditure; it should also reflect a willingness to reform the structure of the state itself. Unless Pakistan completes the unfinished agenda of devolution, broadens the tax base and channels provincial resources towards human development, it may strive to meet fiscal targets without delivering the broader prosperity its citizens are entitled to expect. The writer is a former CEO of Unilever Pakistan and of the Pakistan Business Council Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026
The IDF announces its first female soldier to complete the elite Sayeret Matkal course, marking a historic milestone in Israel’s special forces as she prepares for future operations.
The Council said ticket sales were ‘temporarily paused while the Council completes a review of matters relating to the appointed ticketing provider’.
India’s Nayara Energy, which processes Russian oil, has completed a planned turnaround of its 400,000-barrels-per-day refinery at Vadinar, the Indian refiner said on Thursday. Nayara Energy, in which Rosneft holds 49% and which has been processing only Russian oil for months after the EU sanctions on the company, could boost fuel supply to the Indian market in the coming weeks. The refiner has pivoted to supply the domestic market to avoid the EU sanctions from the summer of 2025 on Nayara Energy because of the Russian ownership. Apart from…
The Marine Corps is moving through its Tactical Aircraft Transition Plan as it plans to fully adopt fifth-generation aircraft across the entire fleet.
-The Fortegra Group, Inc. ("Fortegra"), a global specialty insurance company, today announced the completion ...
With the active support of various parties, the work of China as the rotating chair of the UN Security Council for May drew a successful conclusion, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said Monday at a regular press conference.
Indonesia's regional irrigation upgrade program was 82.73 percent physically complete as of May, Public Works ...
President Trump’s narrative about Jan. 6, 2021, has become the dominant one in the Republican Party, as candidates and prominent lawmakers backing his claims about what happened that day have notched wins at the expense of GOP rivals with a different view. The latest round of primaries all but completes a slow replacement of Republicans...
Mr. Palaniswami wants Vijay to step out of ‘illusion’, take responsibility and uphold law
The IDF also announced on Sunday morning that its ground troops had taken over the Beaufort Ridge outpost and Wadi al-Saluki areas beyond the Litani River
TACLOBAN CITY—The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)-VIII has fully implemented the second and final tranche of the minimum wage increase for all private sector minimum wage earners in Eastern Visayas, effective Monday, June 1. The increase completes Wage Order No. RBVIII-25, which was approved on November 10, 2025 and implemented in two stages
Australian Jai Hindley finishes third at the Giro d'Italia, while Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard adds a title in Rome to his victories in France and Spain.
Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard won the 2026 Giro d'Italia on Sunday to become only the eighth male rider in history to win all three Grand Tours, having also won the Tour de France twice before his triumph at the Vuelta a Espana last year.
"As a River supporter, it's a dream come true," says commanding centre-back as he completes his move back to Argentina. Leer más
MiniMax Group, the Chinese artificial intelligence model company, has officially kicked off plans to sell shares in mainland China. This offers onshore investors access to AI players beyond chipmakers and completes a dual-listing status in addition to Hong Kong. The Shanghai-headquartered company signed an agreement with Citic Securities on Friday, hiring the brokerage to help prepare for a sale of yuan-denominated shares. While other details on the listing are scant, it is widely expected that...