Only 14,721 of over 650,000 doctors file returns

 Only 4,386 tax-paying lawyers out of 450,000

ISLAMABAD: The computer data of Nadra, the Finance Ministry and other government institutions show that lawyers had filed tax returns of less than Rs950 million and doctors only Rs1.95 billion in the year 2015-16.

The data showed that there were over 650,000 doctors and over 450,000 lawyers and advocates who were practicing across the country. The data also showed that out of 11,641 big lawyers and advocates, 4,386 had filed annual tax returns for the year 2015 while remaining did not do so. The 5,761 lawyers had filed tax returns for the year 2014 while 5,880 lawyers did not file tax returns for year 2014.

The 5,761 lawyers had deposited over Rs650 million for the year 2014 while 4,386 lawyers had deposited over Rs940 million as tax for the year 2015. The 3,880 lawyers were non-filers of the tax for the year 2014 while 7,255 were non-filers of tax for the year 2015.

Round about six lakh doctors are prasticing in the country and out of them only 39,607 are registered doctors. The 17,167 doctors filed annual tax returns for the year 2014 and their deposited amount was over Rs2.70 billion while 14,721 doctors filed tax returns for the year 2015 and their amount was over Rs1.930 billion. The 22,440 doctors were non-filers of the tax for the year 2014 and their number touched to 24,886 in the year 2015. It was stated that the reason in the increase of number of non-filers was that the government was not taking action against non-filers of annual tax returns under Income Tax Ordinance 2001.