The reason no one has been sentenced to imprisonment is that the successive governments have protected tax evaders.
ISLAMABAD: Fauzia Wahab's claim, prominently projected in your newspaper's fact box on February 1, that no parliamentarian is a tax thief, can stand the test of truth only if the honest and efficient officers of the Federal Board of Revenue are encouraged to launch prosecutions for concealment of income and evasion of tax. The main reason why, since 1947, no one has been sentenced to imprisonment is that the successive governments have protected those who evade taxes.
Even the Directories of Tax Payers, published in September 1993, for the first and the last time, which exposed tax evaders, are not allowed to be published any longer. This despite the fact that every commissioner of Inland Revenue is now authorised to publish the required particulars of Income Tax Payers (with prior approval of the Federal Government) under Section 216(5) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
Jameel Bhutto
Ex-member (tax policy), CBR
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2011.
