FBR reveals how much lawmakers paid in taxesAg

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday released a tax directory for the year 2018 which made public detailed information of tax filers including elected representatives of the country.

The tax directory was formally launched by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and FBR Chairman Javed Ghani in the presence of media and business representative at the FBR Headquarters.

According to the data, among the senators, Minister for Law Senator Farogh Naseem paid the highest tax of Rs35,135,459. He was followed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s Senator Talha Mahmood who paid Rs29,210,399, independent Senator Taj Afridi (Rs28,177,985), independent Senator Sajjad Turi (Rs17,028,389) and National Party’s Senator Ashok Kumar (Rs6,998,283).

Among the lowest taxpaying parliamentarians, independent Senator Mirza Afridi paid the lowest tax of Rs910, followed by independent Senator Kauda Babar who paid Rs4,339. National Party’s Senator Muhammad Tahir Bizinjo paid Rs4,339, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Senator Anwar Lal Dean Rs5,350, National Party Senator Muhammad Akram Rs5,632 and PPP Senator Quratulain Marri Rs6,265.

Among the members of National Assembly (MNAs), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi paid the highest tax of Rs241,329,362. He was followed by Najeeb Haroon who paid Rs140,036,660, whereas Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan paid Rs26,055,517, Shaukat Ali Rs14,660,476 and Sheikh Fayyaz Ud Din Rs13,861,445. Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda paid nothing in the period.

Among the low taxpaying MNAs, Kanwal Shauzab paid Rs165 followed by Tahir Sadiq who paid Rs214. Likewise, MNA Zulfiqar Bachani paid Rs388, MNA Attaullah Rs517, MNA Abdul Qadir Patel Rs4,792 and MNA Asad Mehmood Rs7,000.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari paid Rs2,891,455, whereas PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari paid Rs294,117 in taxes. Former Punjab chief minister and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif paid Rs9,730,545.

Prime Minister Imran Khan paid Rs282,449. Among the four provincial chief ministers, the greatest amount was paid by Balochistan’s Jam Kamal Khan at Rs4,808,948, while Sindh’s Murad Ali Shah paid Rs1,022,184 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mahmood Khan paid Rs235,982. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar did not pay any tax during this period.

Meanwhile, the FBR also conducted Computerised Balloting for Audit 2018 and selected around 0.76 per cent of cases for audit out of the total filers after exclusions in income tax for the tax year-2018. For sales tax and federal excise duty, the FBR selected 1.67 per cent and 5.65 per cent cases, respectively, for audit out of the total filers after exclusions for tax periods corresponding to accounting period adopted for the purpose of returns of income tax, for tax year-2018.

As many as 10,441 income tax cases were taken through balloting for audit whereas the board selected 2065 sales tax cases and 27 federal excise duty cases for audit through this process.

Speaking on the occasion, Finance Adviser Sheikh said promoting transparency through automation and

digitalisation in tax collection system of the FBR was the prime agenda of the government.

For this purpose, he added, the FBR had made public the tax payers’ information and published the taxpayers’ directory which contained tax record of individuals and parliamentarian and could be accessed by common masses.

Dr Shaikh said only 0.76 per cent cases were selected for audit with an aim to involve minimum number of taxpayers. Last year around 14,000 cases were selected but the audit remained inconclusive due to excessive number of cases, hence this year around 10,000 cases were selected only, he added.