12 known tax defaulters come back into parliament باری مشہور ٹیکس نادہندہ شخصیات کی پارلیمنٹ میں واپسی۔۔۔۔ دیکھیئے

12 known tax defaulters come back into parliament  باری مشہور ٹیکس نادہندہ شخصیات کی پارلیمنٹ میں واپسی۔۔۔۔ دیکھیئے

by Umar Cheema - Published in The News

ISLAMABAD: At least 12 such lawmakers have returned to the National Assembly who turned out to be consistent tax defaulters as neither had they filed tax returns in 2011 nor in 2012 and seven of them belong to PML-N, FBR record reveals.

The former State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Barrister Raza Hayat Harraj, is prominent among them. The Lahore High Court had ordered Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to upload the list of all tax defaulters who contested elections; an order issued in April 2013 but was never implemented.

A guideline sent to district returning officers by the FBR at the time of filing nomination papers declared that whoever found to have not filed tax return is a tax defaulter. There are around 100 MNAs who have returned to the assembly. As many as 235 tax defaulters were spotted in last national assembly (2008-13), according an earlier report “Taxation without Representation” on the 2011 taxes of lawmakers. Some of them later started filing tax returns after this expose; however, 12 of them who also managed to return to the assembly have persisted in this malpractice of non-compliance of tax laws even in 2012.

These defaulters include seven names of PML-N MNAs: Raza Hayat Harraj, Akram Ansari, Junaid Anwaar Chaudhry, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Tahira Aurangzeb, Nighat Parveen and Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani. Two consistent tax defaulters belong to MQM: Abdul Waseem and Iqbal Qadri.

Two returning MNAs from Fata fall in this category: Bilal Rehman and Sajid Hussain Turi. One such MNA is affiliated with Awami Jamhuri Ittehad, Pakistan: Usman Khan Tarakai. There are another four returning MNAs who filed tax returns in 2011 but turned out to be defaulter in 2012, and all of them belong to the PML-N. Included among them are: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman and Waseem Akhtar Sheikh.

Four lawmakers who returned to the National Assembly were non-filer in 2011 but complied with tax laws in 2012 by filing tax returns. Two of them belong to PML-N: Mehmood Bashir Virk and Shakir Bashir Awan. Third MNA bracketed with them contested last election from PML-N platform but elected this time from PTI ticket: Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. PML leader, Ch Pervaiz Elahi is also included in the list. He had earlier issued clarification claiming he filed tax returns in 2011 but FBR record contradicts this claim.

As many as six MNAs have been identified as tax defaulter for year 2010. Four of them are from the PPPP including Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Faryal Talpur, Dr Fehmida Mirza and Munawar Talpur. Former Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar and incumbent Pir Sadarud Din Shah also did not file tax returns in 2010.

Our study had found 461 (47%) lawmakers in national and provincial assemblies who, according to the FBR guideline, fall in the category of tax defaulters as they didn’t file tax

returns in 2012. There are another 84 lawmakers who claimed paying income tax, but the FBR record out-rightly rejected it, meaning thereby they did not file tax returns as well. Including them would swell figure of tax defaulters to 545 (54%) lawmakers. Record of 54 members was not available for examination that could raise the number further.

Over 23,900 candidates submitted nomination papers and majority of them were tax defaulters; however, the FBR lost a golden opportunity to name and shame them quoting the LHC order. It showed reluctance to enforce the tax regime.

The Lahore High Court had ordered the FBR to add two columns of information sent to the ECP in order to include the candidates who are tax defaulters and nature of their default. It reads: “On our query, the Intelligence director, Federal Board of Revenue, states that it would be possible to create another column …indicating if there is default in case of a particular candidate and the nature of such default.”

The judgment goes on: “The aforesaid exercise will be completed within a period of 3 weeks…Such information shall be made available on the websites of the FBR as well as of ECP.” Neither the directed information was passed on to the ECP, nor displayed on the website.