No taxpayer among top 100 flyers

ISLAMABAD: Shockingly, it is a documented fact that a section of the rich remain out of the tax net with impunity. There is not a single taxpayer among Pakistan’s top 100 frequent flyers whose average international travel ranges between three to eight times a month.
Only five of them filed tax returns, however, and declared income less than that of a rickshaw driver and made zero tax payments.Zia-ul-Haq, a Karachi-based businessman, for example, who travels three times a month has declared an annual income of only Rs174,000, according to the information collected by the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation, Inland Revenue of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The DG I&I investigation has documented information of 619 frequent international travellers between 2012 and 2014 only to discover 242 NTN-holders among them. When it comes to filing tax returns, there were only 77 individuals who did that.
Top in this list is a 29-year old citizen, Jibran Nafees, whose average international visits per month are 12 but he is not registered for an NTN, let alone declaring income and filing tax returns. Out of the top-10 flyers, only two are registered for NTN. Even they didn’t file tax returns.
Zahid Rehmani, the first traveller having contributed some amount, has been spotted only at 103rd position, out of 619 names. He travels abroad three times a month, on average, but his declared income is Rs405,000 and the tax paid Rs500.
Among the top-100 frequent flyers, there are 45 NTN-holders and five of them filed tax returns but paid zero tax. The declared income of these five is self-explanatory. Tax is levied on income above Rs400,000 and none of them has crossed this threshold.
Ranked at 12th position, Sharjeel Aziz is the first tax return filer spotted among the top-100 flyers. A trader in Karachi, his average travelling abroad is nine times per month but his declared annual income Rs272,563, less than taxable amount.
Muhammad Yunus, second tax return filer, was placed at the 41st position in terms of his travel count. A jeweller from Faisalabad, he travels on average eight times per month but he declared an annual income of Rs352,400.
Third tax return filer in the top-100 flyers’ list was at the 56th position: Zia-ul-Haq. He is a Karachi-based businessman whose average international travel per month is seven times but declared income is Rs174,000.
Yet another Karachi businessman, Irfan Ahmed, is the fourth tax return filer placed at 59th position in the list. His average travelling per month is seven times but he declared an income of Rs315,000 and the tax is levied on income equivalent or above Rs400,000. The last filer among the top-100 frequent flyers, Arshad Riaz, who was at the 87th position. A crockery trader from Faisalabad with on average six foreign trips a month, he has declared an income of Rs400,000 thus zero tax.