As a part of transparency in tax governance and to have a fair tax system, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of Pakistan started to publish its Tax Directory of Parliamentarians in year 2013. The directory contains tax details of Members of Pakistan’s legislative assembles including Senate, National and Provincial Assemblies. Continuing this exercise, FBR has issued Tax Directory of the Parliamentarians for the tax year 2018.
According to the tax directory of 2018, an amount of Rs. 1.131 billion has been paid by a total of 1007 parliamentarians in individual capacity. 90 members of senate of Pakistan paid a tax of Rs. 178.56 million in 2018 while an amount of Rs. 613.26 million has been paid in taxes by 311 members of National Assembly. On the provincial side, 325 members of Punjab assemble paid an amount of Rs. 190.17 million. Likewise, 150 members of Sindh assembly paid an amount of Rs. 74.76 million, whereas 80 members of KPK assembly paid an amount of 29.48 million in tax during the tax year 2018. Balochistan Assembly’s 43 members paid an aggregate tax amount of 45.95 million in the same tax year.
Parliamentarian also paid Rs. 529.63 million in taxes under Association of Persons (AOP). It may be noted that how much each member has contributed to total tax paid by his AOP varies depending upon the profit-sharing agreement.
As per the data released by FBR, 177 members of legislative assemblies did not paid any tax in the year 2018 whilst 80 parliamentarians paid taxes under Rs. 10,000/-.
Top three Tax Payers
The former Prime Minister and senior leader of PML-N, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi remained the highest tax paying parliamentarian in 2018 at a whopping Rs 241 million in an individual capacity and also paid an amount of Rs 769,169 under AOP category. Moreover, SKA was followed by Muhammad Najeeb Haroon, member of National Assembly from NA-256, who paid tax amount exceeding Rs. 140 million in the tax year 2018. Dr. Farough Naseem, member of senate and Federal Law Minister, was third among the most tax paying parliamentarian with an amount in excess of Rs. 35 million.
The current Prime Minister and PTI’s chairman Imran Khan paid and amount of Rs. 282,449/- during the tax year 2018 while Shehbaz Sharif, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, paid more than Rs 8.7 million in taxes.
Further, the Speaker of National Assembly Asad Qaiser paid Rs. 537,730/- in an individual capacity and also paid an amount of Rs. 5.7 million under AOP. On the other hand, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani paid Rs. 1.36 million during 2018.
In similar manner, the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari paid an amount of Rs. 294,117/- taxes in the year 2018 while his father and co-chairperson of PPP Asif Ali Zardari paid Rs. 2.89 million in taxes.
Taxes Paid by Chief Ministers
Notably, the current Punjab Chief Minister, Usman Buzdar did not paid any tax in the year 2018. Furthermore, Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Chief Minister, paid an amount to Rs 1.02 million in an individual capacity, while Rs 6.3 million under AOP. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan paid an amount of Rs. 235,982/- and Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal’s tax amount stood at Rs. 4.8 million.
Taxes Paid by Federal Ministers
Current Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar paid Rs 5.3 million, Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi paid Rs. 183,900/-; and Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry paid Rs 1.69 million. Surprisingly, most vocal minister of the current government, Muhammad Faisal Vawda didn’t pay any taxes in the year 2018.
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