PTI Central Information Secretary Shafqat Mahmood has said that a spokesman of PML-N has tried to hide the real truth regarding the taxes paid by Nawaz Sharif during the period 2005 to 2007.
In a statement issued here Tuesday, he said the fact was that during the period when he was in exile he paid zero tax. Apart from evidence available with the Federal Board of Revenue, this is borne out by the nomination papers filed by Nawaz Sharif in May 2008 for NA 123 Lahore VI, he added.
He said according to the laws of the county every citizen who has local income, irrespective where he or she resides, was required to file an income tax return and pay taxes. The fact is that Nawaz Sharif was in exile, not his assets; he said adding that, therefore, he had to file a return and pay his share of income tax.
The documents signed by him in 2008 indicating that he never paid any taxes in 2005/6/7 were available with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, he said and added that as soon as Nawaz Sharif returned, he paid Rs 2 million as tax in 2009/10 and Rs 2.5 million in 2010/11.
This tax was paid on income accrued from his shares in Chaudry Sugar Mills and the same mill was also giving him dividends in the years when he was in exile but no tax was paid, he maintained.
He said further that tax evasion by the Sharifs was not an issue which has come under scrutiny for the first time as Nawaz Sharif had been convicted in a tax evasion case in 1999 by the Lahore High Court.
Nawaz never paid any tax in year 2005/6/7: PTI
