For an ordinary Pakistani citizen, earning a livelihood has become increasingly difficult. Rising prices, utility bills, educational expenses, medical costs and numerous government-authorised charges have made everyday life an exhausting financial struggle.
From toll plazas to bus stops, parking areas, examination boards and government offices, citizens encounter one fee after another. Many of these collections may be legally authorised, but their cumulative impact raises a serious question: has the state become more interested in collecting money from its citizens than providing them with essential services?
Toll tax is one obvious example. Every journey on a major highway comes with a charge, and the burden ultimately reaches passengers and transport operators. Public transport vehicles also face various charges at bus stands and stopping points.
In some places, passengers and transporters encounter repeated collections, including parking and adda fees. When contractors are authorised by government departments to collect these amounts, the government must ensure that the charges are lawful, reasonable and proportionate to the facilities actually provided.
Parking charges present another concern. Contractors collect fees from citizens at markets, hospitals, public spaces and other locations. Parking management may be necessary, but charging people repeatedly for access to public places without adequate parking facilities or transparent arrangements is difficult to justify.
Government authorisation should not become a licence for unchecked commercial exploitation.
Students and parents face a similar situation. Examination fees, rechecking charges, document verification and attestation fees add to the financial burden of families already struggling to finance education.
Consider a student who believes that an examination paper has not been assessed fairly. The family must pay a prescribed fee merely to seek a review. The government should ensure that an effective, transparent and affordable grievance mechanism exists.
Educational assessment is a public responsibility, not an opportunity to generate revenue from anxious students.
The same approach is visible in numerous administrative services. Citizens pay for certificates, document attestation, licences, permits and other official procedures. Individual charges may appear small, but their accumulation becomes significant for low-income households.
A government that claims to serve its people must periodically review these charges and determine whether they are genuinely necessary.
The economic circumstances of ordinary households make this issue even more serious. According to an analysis published by Adaad in September 2026, based on Pakistan’s Household Integrated Economic Survey 2024–25, an average household in the poorest tenth of the population consists of nearly eight members and spends approximately Rs33,000 monthly.
The analysis estimates that around Rs2,200 of this expenditure goes towards selected taxes embedded in everyday purchases and bills. This demonstrates how taxation reaches even households that may not pay income tax directly.
The problem, however, is not limited to taxation. It is also about what citizens receive in return.
People pay taxes and fees, yet many do not have access to satisfactory public services. Police protection and timely responses to citizens’ complaints remain concerns in many communities.
Traffic enforcement is necessary for road safety, but it must not create the impression that the primary purpose of traffic policing is the collection of fines. Fines should discourage dangerous driving and promote discipline, not become a substitute for effective traffic management.
Similarly, education and healthcare are increasingly becoming expensive for ordinary families. When public educational institutions fail to provide quality education, parents are compelled to turn towards private schools and colleges.
When public hospitals lack medicines and adequate facilities, patients have little choice but to purchase medicines from private pharmacies and seek expensive treatment. For a family living on a modest income, even a medical emergency can become a financial catastrophe.
The contrast between the difficulties of ordinary citizens and the privileges enjoyed by sections of the powerful elite is particularly disturbing.
Pakistan cannot continuously demand sacrifices from its people while allowing unnecessary privileges, extravagant expenditure and institutional inefficiencies to persist. The World Bank has highlighted the country’s limited social spending and the pressure created by rigid public expenditure commitments.
Fiscal discipline must therefore involve reviewing expenditure and privileges at the top, not merely imposing additional burdens on ordinary households.
The solution is not to abolish every legitimate fee, toll or charge. Roads require maintenance, parking facilities need management and public institutions require resources.
However, every collection must satisfy three basic principles: legality, transparency and proportionality. A fee should correspond to a genuine service, and its collection should be properly monitored.
Government departments must disclose contractor agreements, approved rates, concession terms and the utilisation of collected revenue. Unauthorised collections and duplicate charges must be eliminated.
The government should also introduce a comprehensive review of all public-facing fees and charges. Unnecessary charges should be abolished, excessive rates reduced and exemptions or concessions introduced for deserving low-income citizens.
Public transport operators should not be subjected to repeated charges for services they do not use. Students should have access to affordable and impartial examination appeals, while essential educational and healthcare services must be strengthened through public investment.
Above all, the government must demonstrate practical commitment to reducing the cost of living. This requires controlling unnecessary public expenditure, ending elite privileges, improving public hospitals and schools, ensuring affordable medicines, strengthening law enforcement and providing relief to low-income households.
Citizens are not merely sources of revenue. They are the people in whose name the state exists and whose taxes sustain its institutions. A government cannot measure its performance simply by the amount of revenue it collects. Its real success lies in the quality of services it delivers and the dignity it provides to its people.
The time has come to end the culture of collecting from citizens at every step while failing to deliver corresponding services. Lawful collection must never become a socially acceptable form of exploitation.
The people need relief through practical action, not another round of promises and political rhetoric.
The writer can be reached at mujtabanodeel@gmail.com.
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