Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
taikonaut,

you are right on the money on deficiencies in pak`s tax system. agriculture comprises 20% of pak`s economy and contributes about 0% to tax revenue. also there is a large hidden economy thats not being taxed. there are 42mn cell phones in pak. assuming 6 phones per family, there should be around 7mn families with cell phone connections and yet there are less than 2.5mn tax payers in pak. this data indicates that there are large number of families and businesses not in the tax net. one reason is that small businessmen in pak support mma which is why mma is against documentation of the economy. pak`s tax to gdp ratio is one of the lowest in the world.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
next macacas will be offering tips on how to look after children:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6046718.stm

The report said India contributed to about 5.6 million child deaths per year, more than half the world`s total

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
more laughter....who else but a chaprasi would hold india as some sort of a model when indian exports are only marginally higher than that of thailand - country of 70 mn people.?

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/17554.html

``Trade deficit balloons to $6.2 billion in Oct

Export growth rate slows to 11% against a full year target of 26%

NEW DELHI, NOV 28: India’s trade deficit witnessed more than a two-fold increase to touch $6.2 billion in October 2006 from $2.9 billion in October 2005. In September 2006 the trade deficit stood at $5.3 billion.

Releasing its provisional data on Tuesday, the government said the trade deficit for April-October, 2006 was $ 30.2 billion, 20.3% higher than the deficit of $ 25.1 billion (provisionally revised figure) during April-October, 2005....``

next chaprasi will be offering tips on how good india is in producing world class fast bowlers.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
haha...check out chaprasi macaca predicting downfall of cheen even though cheen`s annual surplus is equal to india`s total foreign reserves and india`s budget deficit is around 7% vs less than 1% for cheen.

as far as pak`s farm production goes, here is a recent development:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=33458

Pakistan may drive up global wheat prices

With stocks towering above 0.45m tonnes, Pak exports will be affecting international commodity exchanges

KARACHI: The world sees Pakistan instrumental in driving up international wheat prices, as it stands among only three wheat-producing countries across the globe having surplus stocks of more than half a million tonnes from last year crop.

A latest assessment made by the US Department of Agriculture suggests Pakistan along with Argentina and Ukraine would be the major player in the international commodity market to determine 2006-07 prices.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
just to put things in perspective, thailand with a population of 70mn will export as much as india will:

http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=26345

Export growth in 2006 projected at nearly 20 per cent

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (TNA) - Thailand`s exports this year are projected to grow and meet the target of 17.5 per cent with total value of US$130.37 billion, according to Commerce Minister Krirkkrai Jirapaet.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
taikonaut,

your numbers are incorrect. india`s total export (merchandise +services) will amount to $140-150bn this year. china`s export in comparison are expected to reach $960bn. to catch up with china, india`s export growth rate will have to exceed china`s export growth rate by 10% for the next 20 years. reality however is that india is running a current account deficit unlike china which is accumalating record surpluses.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LA6QVG1.htm

China exports expected to reach $960B

NOV. 10 7:15 A.M. ET The Commerce Ministry said Friday that China`s exports are expected to reach $960 billion this year, boosting its politically sensitive trade surplus to about $150 billion, a state news agency reported.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
taikonaut,

your numbers are incorrect. india`s total export (merchandise +services) will amount to $140-150bn this year. china`s export in comparison are expected to reach $960bn. to catch up with china, india`s export growth rate will have to exceed china`s export growth rate by 10% for the next 20 years. reality however is that india is running a current account deficit unlike china which is accumalating record surpluses.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LA6QVG1.htm

China exports expected to reach $960B

NOV. 10 7:15 A.M. ET The Commerce Ministry said Friday that China`s exports are expected to reach $960 billion this year, boosting its politically sensitive trade surplus to about $150 billion, a state news agency reported.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
as i said before, this article is very idiotic - only fit to be published on a website like chowk. reality is that relationship between iran and pak is normal.

hot off the wires:

http://www.geo.tv/geonews/details.asp?id=152189&newscategory=pakistan

Musharraf, Ahmadinejad discuss gas price on phone

ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday talked to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on telephone and discussed measures to expedite the US $ 7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

The two leaders agreed to remove impediments in the 2600 km gas pipeline project that aims at supplying natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and then onwards to India.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
meanwhile real situation india with regards to farm production and hunger. i can see a ``we are the world`` type concert fairly soon:

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=3&id=163237&usrsess=1

seven million children in India die of hunger every year. It was earlier reported that 63 per cent of children go to bed hungry, and 53 per cent of them suffer from chronic malnutrition. In 2002, a large number of people died of starvation and malnutrition in the poverty-stricken regions of Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh despite surplus food in the FCI godowns

...Our food output in 2004-05 has declined to 204.6 million tonnes from 212 million tonnes in 2003-04. The scenario in 2005-06 has not been encouraging as the output has not exceeded 209 million tonnes. Given the burgeoning population, the present food production will not be enough to feed our growing population of over 1100 million, if the entire half-fed people are fully fed.

It is reported that India will face a food shortage of about 28 million tonnes by 2025 when the country will need a minimum of at least 338 million tonnes of food for feeding a population of 1690 million.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
this is how impotent iranian leadership is. it cant even pay back baghul may churee macaca leadership. in contrast, pakistan - recepient of millions of dollars in annual u.s. aid -actually voted in favour of iran in this resolution. and this is precisely why i favour pakistan maintaining an ambiguous stance on iran. iranian leadership must be made to realise that there will be a price to pay if acts in ways that might be to the detriment of pak. any leadership that cant distinguish between its friends and enemies deserves to be dicked around.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/archive?ArchiveId=15434

India`s IAEA vote upsets Iran

Iran`s ambassador in New Delhi has met a top Indian foreign affairs official to convey his government`s deep disappointment at India`s decision to vote against Tehran on a UN atomic agency resolution.

The meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and Iranian Ambassador Siyavash Zargar Yaghoubi took place on Tuesday, as Iran threatened to review trade deals with countries that voted against it at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
taikonaut:

these i.t. companies are the only worthwhile things macacas have created since bin qasim stepped on sindhi soil. let them celebrate this success in peace. they dont have much else to be thankful about. their qaum has suffered a lot since bin qasim defeated raja dahir 1300 years ago.

Stagnating Pakistan-Iran Relations
not only is this article completely idiotic, it is also full of lies or in other words, par for the course as far as this website goes.

despite gora pressure, pakistan actually voted against referring iran to the security council for iran`s nuclear program. as far as the pipeline goes, the main issue is the tariff demanded by the iranians which is unacceptable to both india as well as pakistan. this namoona ignores these two points thereby making it clear that either i. he does not know his head from his ass or ii. he is in the business of spreading lies

on the larger point, iran needs pak rather than the other way around. pakistan is in a position which iranians can only dream about :

i. pak has islamic bum

ii. pak has good relations with both east and west

iii. pak does not have clerical rule

iv. pak has a growing and non-oil dependent economy

v. pak has free media

vi pak women have the ability to walk about without covering their head

bottomline pak is doing the right thing by keeping iran at arms length. pak government has the luxury of dealing with iran on its own terms.

The Great Wrong
actually i would agree with adam khan`s point. pukhtoons are the most hardworking and resourceful people in karachi where they now form the second largest ethnic group and control the transportation sector and dominate the construction sector. the question residents of frontier should be asking is why people from their province have to leave home to find opportunities.

The Great Wrong
aslam, the argument you make is made by a lot punjabis and it is untrue. as a % of total tax revenue, custom duties amount to approximately 20%. the largest component of tax revenue is income tax at 30%. karachi contributes about 50% of total income tax collected. furthermore, karachi contributes 26% of domestic sales tax revenue. also if you look at the data of consumer product companies in pak, about 25-33% of their sales take place in karachi. bottom line is that karachi has been the economic engine of pak and that why its populatiom is now about 2x the size of the next biggest city lhr. at independence lhr was much bigger than karachi.

i did also find 2004-05 tax data on the cbr website. the information is available in the fss tab under yearly report link. information is very useful to debunk the myth perpetrated in the pakistani media that smaller provinces are being robbed.

The Great Wrong
in my post 59, i meant to write nwfp and baluchistan will be the biggest losers.

The Great Wrong
zeemax, i have no problems with the existing nfc award. in fact i am saying exactly what you are saying - that taxable economic activity occurs only in karachi and punjab and that frontier and nwfp will be the biggest losers in the event where provinces are given more autonomy because more autonomy means that revenue will stay where its generated. also i agree that punjab is the best managed province and people who blame punjab are playing the game of ethnic hatred much like extremist sunnis blaming shias. the smaller provinces should focus on increasing their revenue base rather than acting like cry babies. its too bad that our press is very dumb and cannot make this simple point.