A major beauty brand is enticing all its UK employees to earn a cut of any sales they drive on TikTok Shop in a bid to cash in on the rapid rise of the influencer-led beauty market.

MAC Cosmetics is kitting out shops with mini studios for its makeup artists to host live shopping shows when it launches on TikTok Shop on April 2.

It says it is the first major beauty brand in the UK to give every member of staff the opportunity to opt in as an affiliate and sell on the social media platform.

Those who become faces of the live channel will be offered a percentage of any sale that they drive on TikTok Shop.

The makeup artists will be encouraged to host tutorials and product demonstrations, with items available to buy directly through the app.

MAC, which is part of the Estee Lauder group of beauty brands, said the first live shopping show will stream from its Carnaby Street store in London.

It is hoping that tapping into social media shoppers will also bring more people into its more than 230 standalone shops and concessions.

TikTok Shop burst onto the UK’s retail scene in 2021 and, in recent years, has become a significant force in the world of e-commerce, reaching millions of people who use the video-sharing app and converting many into shoppers with a few taps.

Many content creators can earn a commission on products that they sell through the app when they co-operate with a brand or retailer.

Major retailers like Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s are now selling products on the marketplace alongside thousands of smaller businesses and brands.

The app has particularly been part of a boom for the beauty market, with beauty sales on the platform soaring by 60% year-on-year in 2025, fuelled by trends such as Korean skincare.

But the spread of in-app shopping has also prompted concerns about so-called impulse buying, particularly among younger consumers who are often targeted by influencer-led marketing.

Sara Staniford, the vice president and general manager of MAC in the UK and Ireland, said: “MAC has always been driven by our artists and the communities they create.

“TikTok Shop gives us an exciting new way to celebrate that creativity and connect with beauty lovers in real time.

“It puts our artists exactly where they belong, at the centre of the conversation.”

The federal budget for next fiscal year (2026-27) will be under preparation after Eid holiday. Our policymakers would face an uphill task to balance the budget amidst the 37-month $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and shockwaves of the war imposed on Iran by the US and Israel in circumstances.

Regional war has intensified geopolitical risk, commodity markets remain volatile and global financial conditions continue to tighten. For a country already navigating fiscal consolidation under an IMF programme, the margin for policy error has become extremely narrow.

In such moments, governments often resort to familiar instruments: higher tax rates, new levies and additional withholding measures designed to secure immediate revenue. Pakistan’s experience over several decades suggests that this approach rarely produces durable fiscal stability. Slower investment, weaker economic activity and a shrinking tax base often follow temporary revenue gains.

A more sustainable framework for fiscal policy is outlined in the PIDE-PRIME Tax Reforms Commission report titled “Revenue with Growth”. The report argues that Pakistan’s tax system must move away from narrow revenue extraction towards a structure that supports economic expansion. Simplification of taxes, encouragement of investment, protection of exports and modernisation of tax administration form the central pillars of this approach. In the difficult environment facing the country today, this framework offers a practical guide for budget strategy.

Escaping high-tax, low-growth trap

Pakistan’s fiscal dilemma has long been structural. Revenues remain modest relative to the size of the economy while expenditures – particularly debt servicing and defence – continue to rise. Periods of geopolitical tension naturally intensify these pressures.

Historically, the response has been to increase taxes on existing taxpayers rather than expand the underlying economic base. This pattern has created a cycle in which weak growth leads to revenue shortfalls, tax rates are increased to meet fiscal targets, higher taxes suppress investment and economic activity, and slow growth again produces fiscal stress.

The PIDE-PRIME report challenges this cycle by emphasising a basic principle of public finance: tax systems designed primarily for extraction eventually undermine the revenue they seek to maximise. Breaking this pattern requires a shift towards policies that expand the productive economic activity.

Simplifying complex tax system

Pakistan’s tax structure has gradually evolved into a complicated web of withholding taxes, presumptive regimes and special levies such as super tax and turnover taxes. Such complexity raises compliance costs, increases litigation and discourages documentation of economic activity. Simplification therefore becomes the logical starting point for reform.

A tax structure with moderate rates applied to a broader base is more likely to encourage compliance while reducing administrative disputes. Predictability is particularly important in the present environment where businesses already face uncertainty from global geopolitical developments.

Encouraging investment and industrial expansion

Economic growth ultimately depends on investment. Yet Pakistan’s tax policy often raises the cost of investment through high duties on machinery and industrial inputs.

The PIDE-PRIME report recommends removing regulatory duties and additional customs duties and allowing zero-rating of plant, machinery and key intermediate goods. Such measures would reduce the cost of capital investment and support technological upgrading within industry.

For the upcoming budget, this principle carries special significance. Periods of regional instability often lead businesses to delay expansion plans. Clear policy signals encouraging industrial investment can counter that hesitation and strengthen confidence in the economy.

Protecting export competitiveness

Exports remain central to Pakistan’s economic resilience. Yet exporters frequently face liquidity constraints arising from withholding taxes, delayed refunds and administrative bottlenecks.

Budget policy should therefore focus on removing distortions affecting export sectors and ensuring efficient refund mechanisms. Strengthening export competitiveness improves foreign exchange earnings and reduces pressure on the balance of payments – an objective that becomes even more critical during periods of global economic turbulence.

Modernising tax administration

Tax reform cannot succeed without administrative reform. The PIDE-PRIME report emphasises the importance of digitisation, automation and reduced discretionary authority in tax administration.

Modern data-driven systems can minimise direct interaction between taxpayers and officials, reduce opportunities for rent seeking and improve voluntary compliance. Administrative credibility becomes especially important in times of economic stress when taxpayers already face higher costs and uncertainty.

Fiscal discipline and credibility

Credible fiscal management must accompany a growth-oriented tax system. Citizens are more willing to comply with taxation when public expenditures demonstrate discipline and transparency.

The upcoming budget should therefore combine tax reform with efforts to rationalise non-development spending and improve efficiency in public sector operations. Fiscal credibility strengthens the relationship between the state and taxpayers and supports long-term revenue mobilisation.

Turning crisis into reform

Pakistan’s economic history shows that periods of crisis often create the political space for structural reform. The present geopolitical and economic pressures therefore offer an opportunity to rethink fiscal strategy.

Instead of repeating the familiar pattern of incremental tax increases, policymakers could use the upcoming budget to initiate transition towards a growth-oriented tax system. Simplifying taxes, encouraging investment, strengthening exports and modernising administration would gradually expand the economic base and improve long-term fiscal stability.

In uncertain times, the most effective fiscal policy is not the one that extracts the largest revenue in the short term. It is the one that strengthens the productive capacity of the economy and ensures sustainable revenue in the years ahead.

The writer is the Advocate Supreme Court, Adjunct Faculty at LUMS, member Advisory Board, visiting Senior Fellow of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and holds LLD in tax laws

Rule number one is that the role of government is to govern and not run a business. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been a huge drain on Pakistan’s fiscal solvency since decades. Staggering losses over the years and the accumulated liabilities absorbed by the national exchequer (read: taxpayers) through subsidies, guarantees and debt have suffocated Pakistan.

Total SOEs’ liabilities have climbed to Rs9.6 trillion, roughly half of the annual federal budget. Unfunded pension obligations alone stand at Rs2 trillion. Out of the Rs13 trillion collected in federal taxes, about Rs2.1 trillion was redirected towards SOEs in 2025 just to keep them afloat. With mounting losses and negative equity of these white elephants, a comprehensive plan for wholesale privatisation of SOEs needs to be developed and, more importantly, implemented on an urgent basis. Yet the current government, like those before it, keep procrastinating the urgent need to privatise these entities.

So, the question to ask is why? The most obvious answer is “retaining control” not for economic rationalisation but for political control. It is the political leadership and state bureaucracy that “throw a monkey wrench” into any plans for privatisation.

Their combined objective is not to increase their economic value but to use them as tools to maintain a patronage system to reward loyalists to SOE boards that exist in name but lack authority, a management that has never run a private business, a bloated employment with excess wages and benefits.

The subordination of economic efficiency to their self-interests inevitably means an incentive to “drag their feet” and/or backtrack on reforms. Bureaucratic inertia and political reluctance, coupled with resistance from vested interests, continues to stall meaningful change, adding to the burden of taxpayers.

The annual report on the federal SOEs (2024-2025) by the Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) in the Ministry of Finance highlights the deep-rooted problems of the public sector to the poor leadership that is unable to run it as a viable commercial enterprise. The CMU recommendations – stronger boards, timely audits, better disclosure and performance-based accountability – are not new.

The CMU fails to understand the nature of business. SOEs cannot function as a sustainable business, any effort to restructure with half measures or cosmetic changes will only give the same results and be an arduous exercise in futility. Private sector businesses with their boards, management and employees are beholden and answerable to their shareholders. Financial health of these companies are annually scrutinised to improve performance and increase economic value.

SOEs on the other hand are beholden and answerable to politicians and bureaucrats, who care less about financial health because it’s not their money on the line, it’s the taxpayers’ money and it is they who “bear the brunt” of these massive losses.

So, what’s the answer to this dilemma? Nothing but a sure-fire sale of these bankrupt SOEs must be done urgently in an unchaotic and transparent manner. Questionable opaque methods of transferring the assets of struggling or bankrupt SOEs to private entities, foreign or domestic, must be avoided. The exit of these SOEs will create opportunities for the private sector to eclipse the state sector as the most important engine of growth, productivity, and job creation in finance, energy, utilities, transport, manufacturing and mining.

Revenues from the privatisation sales will go a long way to help Pakistan’s fiscal quandary, but even more. So the removal of these businesses from Pakistan’s ownership ledgers eases the headache for the government to oversee their operations so that it can focus on governance and utilise a significant portion of public resources on development, education and healthcare rather than keeping these loss-making state entities alive.

The writer is a philanthropist and an economist based in Belgium