In spite of repeated assurances by the Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s economic situation has not improved. According to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Finance, there are large gaps between the goals achieved and the targets set for the current fiscal year. To begin with, the budget deficit could not be brought down to 6.3 percent from the whopping 8.8 percent and has settled at 8.0 percent, showing that the government could neither achieve its revenue targets nor control expenditure. Tax collection has remained at 19 percent against the targeted 23 percent in spite of (if not because of) the concessions given to taxpayers to incentivise them to pay taxes. To make up the fiscal deficit the government has been leaning heavily on the State Bank to meet its expenditures. The federal government’s domestic debt has risen to Rs 1,166 billion during July-February 2013-14, with the result that private investment has gone down because of what is called the ‘crowding out effect’. Government’s inability to manage its finances at a time when the economy is affected by terrorism and the energy crisis is bound to stifle economic activities. How could the prime minister in this scenario fulfil his ambition to bring investment into the country? Or has he accepted the fact that it is only through some targeted loan schemes, smacking of expediency, that he can gain political mileage? Reports are that even this endeavour has not been appreciated and welcomed as was desired by the government. The government has been unable to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio in spite of every effort. Considered a business-friendly government, the finance ministry has been lenient with taxpayers, treating them more with the carrot than the stick. Hence the enormous concessions given to taxpayers to oblige the government by paying more taxes. Similarly, in spite of the IMF’s goodheartedness of revising downwards the tax target for its next performance review, the government has been unable to perform. On the surface there has been a change in the number of tax filers. However, little did anyone bother to look at the number of those who actually paid. The result is that we are stuck with the same nine percent tax-to-GDP ratio. The government has now decided to take back the concessionary feast. Still, unless we expand the tax net, our miseries attached to the fiscal deficit are not going to be ameliorated.It goes without saying that the government has to come out of the cosmetic build-up of economic management and do something substantial.*