The government has issued the tax directory of the parliamentarians for the fifth time. The previous Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government had introduced the practice of issuing tax directory dedicated to lawmakers in 2013. The federal cabinet headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan in November 2018 had approved to issue tax directory of parliamentarians for the tax year 2017. Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar formally launched the tax directory at a ceremony held at the FBR headquarters. The directory has contained the tax details of the last National Assembly and provincial assemblies’ members.
President Arif Ur Rehman Alvi paid Rs377,511 as tax during 2017. He had also paid Rs1.43 million tax as members of associations of persons. Prime Minister Imran Khan had paid Rs103,763 tax during the year 2017 as against Rs159,609 paid in 2016, showing reduction of Rs55,846 in tax payment. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had paid Rs263,173 tax during year 2017 as compared to Rs 2.5million during the year 2016, showing a reduction of Rs2.26 million. Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif paid tax Rs10.03 million during 2017 as compared to Rs9.5 million in 2016. Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaisar had paid Rs580,896 tax. Similarly, he had also paid Rs5.14 million as members of associations of persons.
FEDERAL MINISTERS
Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi had paid Rs653,943 as tax during the year 2017. Finance Minister Asad Umar had paid tax worth Rs4.85 million. Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had paid Rs702,698 and Federal Education & Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood had paid Rs1.096 million and Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed Communications paid Rs241,946. Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen M. Mazari had paid Rs1.57 million tax.
Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak paid Rs927,515, Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan paid Rs1.38 million and Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar had paid Rs475,573 as tax. Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza had paid Rs227,591 and Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had paid Rs138,573 as tax during the year 2017.
OPPOSITION LEADERS (MNAs)
Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had paid Rs3.086 million as tax and Rs702,250 as members of associations of persons. Khawaja Muhammad Asif had paid Rs5.56 million as tax and Rs 47,694 as members of associations of persons. Former Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had paid Rs289,174, Khawaja Saad Rafique had paid Rs5.22 million, Ahsan Iqbal paid Rs368,598 and Khurram Dastgir Khan Rs284,780. Syed Naveed Qamar had paid Rs165,243, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah paid Rs256,121, Faryal Talpur paid Rs2.87 million, Shazia Mari Rs138,573, Marriyum Aurangzeb Rs254,358 and Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho had paid Rs480,905 tax during the year 2017.
SENATORS
Leader of the house in the Senate Syed Shibli Faraz had paid 681,923, opposition leader Raja Zafar-ul-Haq paid Rs 268,308, Raza Rabbani paid Rs605,954 as tax and Rs742,202 as members of associations of persons, Aitzaz Ahsan paid Rs25.87 million, Dr Farogh Naseem paid Rs27.89 million tax, Senator Siraj-ul-Haq paid tax of Rs138,573, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed paid Rs176,434, Senator Rehman Malik paid Rs165,243, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla paid Rs1.44 million, Senator Sherry Rehman paid Rs1.85 million and Senator Farhat Ullah Babar paid Rs343,685 tax during the year 2017.
Former PTI’s MNA Jahangir Khan Tareen paid Rs97.32 million. Former Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan paid Rs1.72 million, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman Rs125,225, Dr Farooq Sattar, former MNA of MQM, Rs149,005, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of ANP Rs138,571, and Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao paid Rs1.78 million during the year 2017.
Addressing the launching ceremony of tax directory, Chairman FBR Jahanzeb Khan said that it has been the fifth consecutive year that the tax directory for the parliamentarians and the taxpayers has been published by FBR. Increasing the number of taxpayers and improving on the tax to GDP ratio had been the top most priority of the current government as already affirmed by the Prime Minister and the Minister of State, added the chairman. There had been a 34% increase in the number of tax filers because of the steps taken by FBR, said the chairman.
Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar 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 emphasized the importance of technological interventions in ascertaining the tax liabilities of the individuals thereby minimizing the element of human intervention and complaints against coercion. He said that there are challenges like increase in trade deficit and a large budget deficit that have 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 our tax targets but increase our revenues.
minister of state also said that it will be our 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 our system is restored in the hearts of the people. He said that it is the vision of our government to make this country prosperous by providing our business community with a competitive business environment and for this purpose we have 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.
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Taxation