–PM Khan paid Rs0.103m, Nawaz Sharif Rs0. 263m, Pervaiz Elahi Rs2.13m
ISLAMABAD: Disqualified Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Khan Tareen remained the highest taxpayer in 2017 among the 1,071 parliamentarians as he paid Rs97 million tax.
Federal State Minister for Revenue Hamad Azhar on Friday launched the Taxpayers’ Directory 2017 for parliamentarians and all taxpayers at the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) Headquarters.
Prime Minister Imran Khan paid Rs103, 763, jailed former PM Nawaz Sharif Rs263,173, Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi Rs2.13 million, defence minister Rs0.927 million, Sindh chief minister Rs0.988 million (Rs7.08 million as AoP), former planning minister Ahsan Iqbal Rs0.368 million, former National Assembly (NA) speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq Rs0.289 million, former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Rs1.7 million, Faryal Talpur Rs2.89 million and former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had paid Rs3.08 million as well as Rs0.702 million as AoP tax in the fiscal year 2017.
Parliamentarian tax directory further states that Senator Talha Mehmood paid Rs43 million, Rozi Khan Kakar Rs40 million, Taj Muhammad Afridi Rs29 million, incumbent Federal Minister for Law Farogh Naseem Rs27 million, Aitizaz Ahsan Rs25 million, Isphanyar Bhandara Rs22 million, Noor Saleem Malik Rs15 million, Sardar Zahoor Ahmed Rs14 million, Sheikh Fayyazud Din Rs14 million as well as Rs0.862 million as AOP, Ch Arshad Javaid Warraich Rs13 million, Farooq Hamid Naek Rs11 million, Shahbaz Sharif Rs10 million, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri Rs10 million, former finance minister Ishaq Dar Rs9.3 million, Akbar Aksani Rs8.9 million, Hamza Shehbaz Rs8.2 million, Amjad Khan Afridi Rs6.3 million, Muhammad Ali Rashid Rs6.3 million as well as Rs2.6 million as AoP, Jam Kamal Khan Rs6.1 million, Nawaz Zada Wali Mohammad Rs6.98 million, Ghazali Saleem Butt Rs5.8 million, Moonis Elahi Rs5.7 million, Khawaja Muhammad Asif Rs5.5 (Rs47,694 as AoP) and Khawaja Saad Rafique paid Rs5.2 million tax.
Nine politicians belonging to different provinces as well as NA did not pay any tax in 2017. The members are Najaf Abbas Sial, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, Makhdoomzada Syed Ahmed Sultan Bukhari, Behum Tahir Bukhari, Santosh Kumar, Sardar Fareed, Saleh Muhammad, Syed Ghulam Shah Jeelani, and Owais Muzaffar.
Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar, in his address to the participants of the ceremony, said that the object of launching the tax directory is to introduce financial transparency and sharing information with the public on how much the public representatives, who had been availing the resources of the country on behalf of the people, had been paying individually as taxes to the exchequer.
The minister also emphasised the importance of technological interventions in ascertaining the tax liabilities of the individuals thereby minimising the element of human intervention and complaints against coercion. He said that there are challenges like an increase in trade deficit and a large budget deficit that has accumulated over the years but we are taking measures to overcome it. He said that FBR had taken initiatives like ascertaining liabilities of the high net worth Individuals and getting details of the offshore assets of the Pakistanis and that will surely not only help in achieving the tax targets but increase revenues.
The minister of state also said that it will be the government’s policy from now onwards to collect the taxes from wealthy and mighty first and treat everyone according to the law so that the belief in the system is restored in the hearts of the people. He said that it is the vision of the government to make this country prosperous by providing the business community with a competitive business environment and for this purpose, the government has offered a trade facilitation package which is in the parliament for approval. “We hope that the future is bright for our country and FBR will play its rightful role in this drive towards prosperity,” he said.
The FBR chairman said that it has been the fifth consecutive year that the tax directory for the parliamentarians and the taxpayers is published by FBR. “Increasing the number of taxpayers and improving on the tax to GDP ratio had been the topmost priority of the current government as already affirmed by the prime minister and the minister of state,” the chairman added. There had been a 34 per cent increase in the number of tax filers because of the steps taken by FBR, said the chairman. He further said that an increase in investment, facilitation and fair treatment of the taxpayers are the guiding principles of the incumbent government’s tax policy.
