MM News

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday released Tax Directory 2019, which gives an insight into tax collection and taxes paid by parliamentarians.

“This directory has been tabulated from returns filed manually and electronically till January 3, 2022,” the FBR said. As per the document, this data only includes income and tax declared in returns filed to FBR and does not include agricultural income tax paid to provinces, sales tax, federal excise duty etc.

According to the data, Prime Minister Imran Khan has paid Rs9.8 million while former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani paid no tax in the said year.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif paid Rs8.2m while PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari paid Rs0.53m. PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari paid Rs2.2m.

Finance minister Shaukat Tarin paid Rs26.6m while former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi paid Rs4.9m. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s tax amounted to Rs1.1m. In contrast, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar paid a measly Rs2,000.

Current Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo Rs1.1m and his predecessor Jam Kamal Khan paid Rs11.8m. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan paid Rs66,258.

Among the members of the federal cabinet, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi paid Rs0.9m while Planning and Development Minister Asad Umer paid Rs4.3m. Energy Minister Hammad Azhar paid Rs29,025 in an individual capacity while his associations of persons (AOPs) tax amounted to Rs18.1m.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Senator Faisal Subzwari, Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas and Punjab Prisons Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan were among several lawmakers that paid Rs2,000.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Yousuf Raza Gillani and PML-N’s Azma Zahid Bokhari did not pay anything in taxes.

Shaukat Tarin inaugurates Parliamentarians Tax Directory

“In order to create a tax culture, we should start with Parliamentarians”, Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin said while inaugurating the Parliamentarians Tax Directory for the tax year 2019.

Speaking on the occasion, the federal minister said: “We are taking steps to bring transparency and simplification in the tax system,” adding that taxes play a vital role in the development of a country.

The minister further said that Pakistan is unable to meet its current expenditure through its revenue, hence, it needs to borrow money from foreign lenders.

Tarin was of the view that there should be only two types of taxes — income tax and consumption tax. He further said that taxes will be charged according to the income of people.

“We need to shift towards progressive taxation,” Tarin said, adding the revenue board has the names of 15 million people which will be utilised. Urging the politicians to pay taxes, Tarin said that Parliamentarians should set an example for other people by paying taxes.

Shedding light on the challenges, he said that tax coordination is a bigger challenge for the FBR. “We will start sending notices to people from January and if anyone has any objection, they should contact the third party,” he said.