Making history: Tax details of lawmakers made public, finally

ISLAMABAD: For the first time in the country’s history, the government published tax details of parliamentarians on Saturday, reinforcing the view that Pakistani lawmakers are contributing very little to the national exchequer. The Parliamentarians’ Tax Directory, published by the Federal Board of Revenue, reveals that while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid Rs2.65 million in income tax, he did not pay anything under the Income Support Levy (ISL) – a move that would imply the premier owns no ‘moveable’ assets. The government has imposed the ISL at the rate of 0.5% of the value of all moveable assets an individual owns. Earnings from the ISL will go straightway to beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Fund. Like Premier Nawaz, his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, paid Rs3.64 million in income tax and nothing under the ISL. Similarly, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah did not pay anything under ISL and paid just Rs62,214 in income tax.

The chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa also did not pay anything under the ISL – Qaim Ali Shah and Pervaiz Khattak paid Rs33,724 and Rs300,494 in income tax, respectively – while their counterpart from Balochistan, Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch, did not pay income tax. Premier Nawaz’s cabinet, like him, appeared to have earned a ‘modest’ income and paid very little in taxes, according to the directory. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the main proponent behind the imposition of ISL, paid just Rs824,891 in income tax and Rs2.7 million under the ISL. The ministers for information, interior, commerce and science, did not pay anything under the ISL. Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid paid Rs20,959 in income tax, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar paid Rs57,124, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir paid just Rs21,111 and Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid paid Rs190,256. Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who owns an airline, paid nothing under the ISL either and paid just Rs1.2 million in income tax. Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif, known to be very wealthy, paid just Rs58,719 in income tax while Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal paid a paltry sum of Rs11,084. Meanwhile, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique paid Rs1.2 million in income tax, National Food Security Minister Sikandar Hayat paid Rs404,485, State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab paid Rs315,313, State Minister for Education Balighur Rehman paid Rs135,750 and State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali paid just Rs22,722. Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Riaz Peerzada and Minister of State for National Health Services Saira Tarar paid as low as Rs15,254 and Rs10,371 in income tax, respectively. Sindh Assembly member Syed Awais Qadir Shah paid the highest income tax, Rs18.74 million, among all lawmakers. He was followed by Senator Abbas Khan Afridi who paid around Rs18 million. Punjab Assembly member Chaudhry Arshad Javed Warraich came in third with Rs17.7 million in income tax and Rs846,107 under the ISL. Sisters of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur and Azra Fazl Pechuho paid Rs243,907 and Rs279,001 in income tax, respectively. Neither of them paid anything under the ISL. Faryal Talpur’s husband, Munawar Talpur, also skipped out on the ISL while paying Rs68,333 in income tax. Others who skipped out on the ISL include Hamza Shahbaz, Chaudhry Moonis Ilahi, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Farooq Sattar, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Arif Alvi and Asad Umar, and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Raza Rabbani. Hamza Shahbaz paid Rs4.4 million in income tax, Asad Umar paid Rs532,918, Moonis Elahi paid Rs519,455, Raza Rabbani paid Rs316,542, Arif Alvi paid Rs184,303 and Farooq Sattar paid Rs70,888 while, Maulana Fazlur Rehman paid a meagre Rs13,462. National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq paid Rs148,868, Senate Chairman Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari paid Rs262,024 and his deputy Sabir Ali Baloch paid just Rs90,511 in income tax. Senator Aitzaz Ahsan paid Rs8.8 million income tax. Speaking to the media, FBR spokesman Shahid Hussain Asad said the publication of the Parliamentarians’ Tax Directory was an important step towards ensuring transparency and making voters aware about whether their representatives were paying taxes or not. Out of the total 1,172 lawmakers from parliament and the four provincial assemblies, 1,072 filed their income tax returns for the tax year which ended on June 30, 2013. Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2014.