Pakistan Sees Leap In Taxpayer Numbers
Launching the taxpayer directory for the 2016 tax year, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, revealed that government efforts to broaden the country’s taxpayer base have been successful.
The number of registered taxpayers, he said, has increased by nearly 50 percent from four years ago, when the first “directory” was released.
He revealed that 1.2 million companies, associations of persons (AOPs), and individuals had filed tax returns in the 2016 tax year, and, between 2013 and 2016, tax revenues had increased from PKR1.9 trillion (USD18bn) to PKR3.3 trillion.
In the Foreword to the directory, Dar stated that: “It gives me immense pleasure to announce that the initiatives taken by the government to broaden the tax base are yielding the desired results… The Tax Directory is a manifestation of Government’s commitment to provide access to information to the general public and should help in creating public awareness, motivation, and transparency.”
