About 200 million Pakistanis still cannot access or afford the internet, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to the IMF “Fiscal Monitor 2018, capitalizing on good times” majority of the world’s population still cannot access or afford the internet.
About 4.2 billion people of the world still have no access or afford internet, while total internet users in the world are 3.2 billion.
About 200 million Pakistanis still cannot access or afford the internet, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
About 4.2 billion people of the world still have no access or afford internet, while total internet users in the world are 3.2 billion
Contrary to the tall claims of the government of expanding broadband services to the whole country by 2018, Pakistan is among the top ten countries where people do not have access to the internet. The list can be seen below:
- India – 1.1 billion
- China – 0.7 billion
- Indonesia – 0.2 billion
- Pakistan – 0.2 billion
- Bangladesh – 0.1 billion
- Nigeria – 0.1 billion
- Brazil – 0.1 billion
- Ethiopia – 0.1 billion
Countries outside of the top 10, have 1.6 billion people without access to the internet.
The report further suggests how governments should tax the incomes of global companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—and other lesser known firms—that serve so many citizens across the world using digital technology.
This has proved an extremely contentious and urgent issue. Some countries have already taken action—in spring 2018, the OECD issued a report, and the European Commission proposed measures to address this issue.
Digitalization can bridge information gaps between governments and economic actors, improving the efficiency of policy and the lives of citizens. Greater information can enable governments to better enforce tax compliance, improve the delivery of public services, ensure participation in the social safety net, and design policies that are more consistent with individual circumstances and behavior. Even if digitalization broadens options for governments to better design and implements policies. How viable these policies are, ultimately depends on political resolve. The challenge is to adopt digital tools to enhance government policies while mitigating the risks associated with digitalization.
This will require action on several fronts:
• A comprehensive reform agenda:Digitalization is not a substitute for administrative capacity, institution building, or structural reform. For example, the case studies in this chapter suggest that although digitalization can help improve tax compliance and the efficiency of social protection spending, its success hinges on the implementation of parallel reforms, that is, an overall reform strategy is needed. In South Africa, the digitalization of tax administration was accompanied by initiatives to improve tax compliance. In India, reductions in leakages in the distribution of LPG subsidies were achieved not only with digital tools but also with a reform of the pricing mechanism.
• Risk mitigation: Governments will need to address the multiple sources of digital risks. Failure to deal with privacy issues and cybersecurity could compromise digitalization efforts. Lack of trust could erode the desire to participate in e-government or undermine policy objectives. In South Africa and India, lack of attention to privacy issues initially posed some important challenges to the digital programs for social protection.
• Adequate resources: Digitalization will not come without cost. Participation in digital governments requires substantial investments in capacity building and digital infrastructure, as well as resources to finance recurring costs to account for regular maintenance and cybersecurity. Governments need to create fiscal space to undertake these crucial investments.
• International cooperation: Greater exchange of information across countries can help governments uncover and tax hidden wealth and income, but the success of these exchanges in practice requires international cooperation to ensure enforceability and security of data exchanges. Furthermore, the increase in the scale of cross-border activities associated with digitalization may call into question the very architecture of international taxation when it comes to the allocation of taxing rights. Such changes in corporate taxation will require coordination of policies to avoid unintended spillovers, tax competition, and double taxation. With digitalization, more efficient alternatives to source-based taxation—destination-based taxation—have become more viable.
