Dues shy: Only 35 K-P legislators paid income tax last year

[Devil Soul]

Dues shy: Only 35 K-P legislators paid income tax last year
By Manzoor Ali
Published: February 17, 2014

PESHAWAR:
If income tax details revealed by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are to be believed, the big guns among Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) politicians are from the poorest section of the province.

According to the Parliamentarians Tax Directory issued by FBR on February 15, of the 97 lawmakers of the provincial assembly who filed their tax returns, only 35 paid taxes while only two paid the income support levy (ISL). The government has imposed the ISL at the rate of 0.5% of the value of all moveable assets an individual owns. More interestingly, of a house of 124, only 97 bothered to make the effort of filing their returns.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker from Peshawar Ziaullah Afridi paid ISL worth Rs97,072 and Rs231,460 in taxes while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker from Haripur Raja Faisal Zaman paid ISL worth Rs8,333 and taxes worth Rs54,200. The income tax returns published on FBR’s website are up till the financial year that ended on June 30, 2013 and are stated to be a “provisional edition” to be finalised by the end of this month.

K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak paid Rs300,494 in taxes whereas opposition leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi paid Rs153,844 but both have not paid the income support levy. Senior minister Sirajul Haq’s name does not appear on the list.

Meanwhile, cabinet members including Minister for Information Shah Farman, Minister for Health Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Minister for Revenue Ali Amin Gandapur, Minister for Agriculture Shahram Khan, speaker Asad Qaiser and Minister for Sports and Culture Mehmood Khan have not paid any taxes.

PTI lawmaker Dr Mehr Taj Roghani and PML-N’s Sobia Shahid were the only female MPAs among 22 women lawmakers who paid taxes worth Rs 704,730 and Rs156,000 respectively.

Of parliamentary leaders in K-P Assembly, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Maulana Lutfur Rehman, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) leader Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Sardar Hussain Babak and Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Muhammad Ali Shah Baacha have not paid a penny in taxes.

Out of the 35 lawmakers who paid taxes, only 14 have six figure payments and the rest have submitted paltry amounts. JUI-F lawmaker from Lakki Marwat Malik Noor Salim has paid the highest amount of tax amounting to Rs11.512 million, however, he paid no ISL. PTI’s Amjad Khan Afridi and Iftikhar Ali Mashwani paid Rs3.8 million and Rs3.2 million respectively in taxes. PML-N’s Sardar Zahoor Ahmed and Nawabzada Wali Mohammad Khan paid Rs2 million and Rs1.3 million respectively but did not pay any ISL.

JUI-F lawmaker Shah Hussain Khan Allai and Adviser to Chief Minister on Food Haji Qalandar Khan Lodhi have topped the list from the bottom after having paid Rs1,000 each in income tax returns.

Other lawmakers who have paid taxes are:

PTIMohammad IshtiaqRs35,675
PTIKhaliqur RehmanRs2,530
PTIJamshaiduddinRs176,158
PTIQurban Ali KhanRs55,545
JUI-FFazal Shakor KhanRs790,312
PTIMuhammad ArifRs2,500
ANPAhmed Khan BahadurRs13,625
AJIPMuhammad Ali TarkaiRs2,300
PTIImtiaz ShahidRs5,403
PTIArif YousafRs9,180
PTIMuhstaq GhaniRs128,448
PTISardar Mohammad IdressRs3,500
PML-NRaja Faisal ZamanRs54,200
PTIYaseen Khan KhalilRs27,500
PTIFaisal ZamanRs16,000
PML-NWajehuzaman KhanRs35,750
PTIFazal ElahiRs7,500
JUI-FMahmood Ahmad KhanRs30,560
JUI-FAzam Khan DurraniRs32,000
JUI-FMalik Riaz KhanRs282,359
JUI-FAnwar Hayat KhanRs260,447
JUI-FMunawar KhanRs127,500
QWPAl Hajj Ibrar HussainRs339,138
JIInayatullah KhanRs11,750
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2014.

 

[45'22']

 

[batmannow]

DAM DAMOCRAZY!

 

[Spring Onion]

any details of other provinces?

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

any details of other provinces?

iSLAMABAD: “Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.” The first “Parliamentarians Tax Directory”, issued by the Federal Board of Revenue on Saturday, attests to these remarks made by an American novelist. Barring a few worthy exceptions, the sums paid as income tax by most of the elected representatives are laughably low. Putting it mildly, the returns do not match their princely lifestyle. Of the 319 MNAs who filed their tax returns, 108 paid no tax at all. The MNAs who paid less than Rs100 as income tax include Asyia Naz Tanoli (Rs88), Tahir Bashir Cheema (Rs55) and Mohammad Zain Elahi (Rs72). According to the directory, senators paid more income tax than members of the National Assembly in 2013. Eighty-six senators filed their tax returns while three paid nothing. Out of 89 senators, Federal minister Abbas Khan Afridi from tribal areas paid highest income tax of Rs17.991 million, while Naseema Ehsan paid lowest Rs6,750. Among the senators who paid over Rs5 million as income tax, Talha Mehmood topped them with Rs12.940m, followed by Aitzaz Ahsan (Rs8.763m) and Dr Farogh Naseem (Rs7.868m). The senators who paid more than Rs1m include Heman Dass (Rs2.942m), Osman Saifullah Khan (Rs2.739m), Abdul Haseeb Khan (Rs2.456m), Malik Rafique Rajwana (Rs1.207m) and Saleem Mandviwalla (Rs1.145m). Although their names exist on the tax roll, 14 senators have not filed their returns. Three senators also paid income support levy which was imposed on movable assets in the budget 2013-14. They are Osman Saifullah Khan (Rs379,247), Finance Minister Ishaq Dar (Rs2.701m) and Prof Sajid Mir (Rs21,219). National Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, paid Rs4.383m as income tax. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid income tax of Rs2.646m. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi paid Rs1.205m, Obaid Ullah Shadi Khel (Rs1.256m), Chaudhry Shahbaz Babar (Rs1.075m), Sheikh Akram (Rs1.007m), Khwaja Saad Rafique (Rs1.215m) and Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir (Rs1.213m). As many as 23 MNAs have not filed their returns, but their names are on the tax rolls. Tariq Christopher Qaiser paid the highest income support levy of Rs568,859, followed by Sheikh Aftab Ahmad (Rs19,475), Khawaja Asif (Rs19,607) and Syed Ali Hassan Gilani (Rs14,333). The tax directory shows that 16 MNAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 from tribal areas, 38 from Punjab; 21 from Sindh, five from Balochistan, nine females on reserved seats from Punjab, six on reserved seats from Sindh and two from minorities did not pay any income tax.Source: Dawn