ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Thursday launched the Parliamentarians Tax Directory for the fourth consecutive year ending on June 30.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar formally launched the tax directory in a ceremony held here at the FBR headquarters. This year the tax directory containing tax details of 1,010 parliamentarians as against last years’ tax details of 996 parliamentarians from upper and lower houses, and provincial assemblies were disclosed for public.
According to the directory, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid Rs2,524,213 in taxes while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan paid Rs159,609.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani paid Rs492,201 while National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq paid Rs104,853 in taxes. National Assembly Opposition leader Khursheed Shah paid Rs124,215 while Senator Aitzaz Ahsan paid Rs13,854,833.
Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed paid Rs505,966 while Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Siraj-ul-Haq paid Rs34,941 in taxes.
MQM-P chief Farooq Sattar paid Rs39,758 and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman paid Rs50,181 in taxes.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar paid Rs4,617,328, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Rs1,192,618, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif Rs831,986 and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique paid Rs3,983,491 in taxes.
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid Rs9,531,060, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah Rs743,471, Khyber Pakhthunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak Rs831,869 and Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri paid 1,411,000 in taxes.
Molana Fazal ur Rehman paid 50,181 tax, Shah Mahmood Qureshi 1,862,414, Jahangir Khan Tareen 53,677,426, Hamza Shehbaz 7,038,777
Balochistan’s Rozi Khan Kakar 49,923,783, FATA, Taj Muhammad Afridi 35,284,413, KPK’s Muhammad Talha Mehmood 32,495,268 and Shahi Syed paied 1,930,367 tax for the corresponding tax year.
The directory was tabulated from returns filed manually and electronically till July 26, 2017. The FBR has allowed additional one month to those parliamentarians who are still in the process of submitting tax details.
Addressing on the occasion, Ishaq Dar said Pakistan was among the four countries on the globe which had made the tax returns of its parliamentarians public. He said this showed the commitment of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government to ensure transparency at highest level.
The minister said people were speculating that the government would not publish the details this year, however he with the consent of Federal Cabinet, made it possible even in July which was earlier as it was to be published in October.
He said due to structural reforms introduced by the incumbent government in taxation system, revenue collection increased by 73 per cent in 4 years from around Rs1,900 billion in 2013 to Rs3,360 billion this year.
Highlighting the government’s economic performance during last four years, the minister said it had made several efforts to ensure transparency in institutions.
“After continued struggle for two years and by fulfilling the international set criteria and introducing the internal reforms, Pakistan became the 104th member of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,” Dar said adding that the multilateral convention on administrative assistance in tax matters was aimed at curbing growing tax evasion and encouraging the tax compliance culture across the board.
Besides, he said after long negotiations of three years, Pakistan had signed a unilateral treaty with Switzerland for sharing the tax information in order to bring transparency and plugging the tax evasion.
The minister said the government has also initiated steps for implementing the international conventions for anti-bribery for eradicating the menace of corruption from the country. Additionally, the minister informed that the current government initiated the toughest programme with the International Monetary Fund and completed it successfully. He however, said all these economic gains were not being digested by the de-trackers.
“The de-trackers are not happy with the current development as they do not want to see Pakistan as an economic sovereign country”, he added.
Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on revenue affairs, Haroon Akhtar Khan said the government had launched a number of initiatives to ensure transparency in the country. He said it was critical to distinguish between the corrupt people and those who build the nation.
