13 parliamentarians among 14,154 facing tax audit

Lack of personnel means far fewer tax audits this year

ISLAMABAD: It has been revealed that Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani is among 13 parliamentarians belonging to the senate and the national and provincial assemblies who have been selected for tax audit for the year 2017. It has also been disclosed that three former members of parliament, including former minister of religious affairs Pir Ameen-ul-Hasnaat, have also been selected for the audit. In the next phase, the members of parliament selected for the audit are to be issued notices by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar carried out a risk-based parametric computerized draw at the FBR headquarters for the 2017 tax year. A total of 14,154 income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty cases have been selected for audit, thirteen of these selected tax cases belong to the current senate and national and provincial assemblies and three to the former parliament.



According to details, the selected members include Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, PML-N Senators Chaudhry Tanveer and Lt.-Gen. (R) Salahuddin Tirmizi. Also included are Sindh Assembly MQM member Hamid Altar, MPA Ali Nawaz Khan Mehar and Balochistan Assembly member Asghar Ali Tareen. Others include MQM MNA Nadeem Ahmed Siddiqui, PML-N’s Punjab Assembly member Chaudhry Naveed Ashraf, PTI MNA Aftab Jahangir, PTI Sindh Assembly member Umar Umri and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa MNA Arbab Umar Ayub. Former members of parliament facing audits are former minister for religious affairs Pir Ameen-ul-Hasnaat and former members of parliament Saud Majeed and Bilal Akbar Bhatti.

Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar pushed the button for a risk-based parametric computerized draw at a ceremony held at the FBR headquarters for the 2017 tax year. In the income tax category, 10, 982 cases were selected out of a total of 477,374 income tax payers. Of a total of 124,004 sales tax payers, 3,116 were selected while 56 cases were selected out of 725 federal excise duty payers. Due to lack of personnel, the number of taxpayers selected for audit this year is low compared to last year’s over 70,000 and more than 90,000 the year before. The audit for the previous two years has still not been completed for the same reason with more than 500,000 old cases still pending in which revenue worth billions of rupees needs to be recovered.