FAPUASA rejects abolition of tax rebate under IMF pressure

Islamabad:The Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) has strongly condemned the government's plan to abolish the longstanding tax rebate for university teachers and researchers in the upcoming budget.

Introduced in 2006 at a 75% rate and reduced to 40% by the PML-N government in 2013, this rebate was the only meaningful incentive for teachers and researchers to stay in academia and contribute to national development. Now, the same party seeks to end it altogether, dealing a serious blow to higher education and research in Pakistan.

The government’s excuse that the IMF has objected to the rebate, is both weak and misleading, it said. If the IMF has no objection to the FBR spending billions on luxury cars for officers, how can it justify denying a modest tax relief for educators and researchers? Even more outrageously, the same budget reportedly includes up to 600% salary increases for parliamentarians, highlighting the government’s misplaced priorities.

This selective austerity, according to FAPUASA, reflected a disturbing trend: rewarding bureaucracy and political elites while punishing educators. It is shameful that a sovereign country surrendered its policy space to external institutions to the point of micromanaging academic incentives.

Ending the rebate will accelerate brain-drain, demoralise scholars and further weaken research output in Pakistan. FAPUASA will announce its response strategy in a press conference on Monday. It demanded immediate reversal of this anti-education decision. Teachers and researchers deserve respect, not cuts, it said.