Following a stunning report on Axact’s global fake degree operations published in the New York Times on May 18, Atlantic Media group’s digital publication Quartz on Tuesday took a deeper look at Axact’s chief executive and founder.
The man who wanted to be “richer than Bill Gates” and whose company claims to have a presence in “six continents, 120 countries and 1,300 cities”, paid only Rs 26 in income tax in 2014, a fact first made public by local Pakistani journalist Ahmed Noorani in mid-April, the report found.
Based on the lowest individual tax rate in Pakistan, Shaikh’s total declared annual income was just Rs 400,520, or a little above Rs 33,377 a month.
The Quartz report found that Axact was only registered in June 2006, according to the records of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and only had paid up capital of Rs 6 million, according to SECP’s 2010 records.
Last fiscal year, Axact paid a little above Rs 1.8 million in corporate tax according to FBR, putting the company’s earnings a little above Rs 5.5 million (at a 34% corporate tax rate)