Pakistan’s Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has told the National Assembly that the government will go after tax dodgers it has already identified, and also urged parliament members to set an example by paying their taxes.
“We can’t ask for sacrifices by other people unless our own hands are clean,” Hafeez pointed out.
Winding up the general debate on his 2.77-trillion-rupee budget for the fiscal year 2011-12, Hafeez also appealed to all rich people like industrialists and “media moguls” to carry out the “national duty” of paying taxes.
Noting that only about 1.5 million people in Pakistan were paying their income tax, he said that the tax authorities had identified 700,000 more potential taxpayers on the basis of their lifestyle.
“We will go after these seven lakh people. God willing, we will give results,” the Dawn quoted the Finance Minister, as saying.
Hafeez informed the House that these 700,000 new potential taxpayers had been identified on the basis of “best addresses” of their residences, more than two bank accounts, frequency of their foreign travel and non-possession of national tax numbers.
The biggest responsibility is on the members of the house to pay their taxes to set an example, he added.
According to Pakistan’s Population Census Organisation, the country’s estimated population on June 18, 2011 is 17,63,70,619. ANI
