600,000 Pakistanis evaded tax last year

Around 600,000 people in Pakistan did not pay their taxes in the past one year, which highlights the "incompetence and mismanagement" of the country's top tax machinery, a daily said Sunday.

The Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) claims 1.44 million people regularly file tax returns, but there are only 856,987 taxpayers who can be traced to their homes or workplaces, the Dawn reported. "Does this mean that the missing numbers - 583,013 - are imaginary tax payers," the daily asked.

This discrepancy emerged from the data of the National Database and Registration Authority when it was compared with figures compiled by the Pakistan Revenue Automation, a subsidiary of the FBR.

It was also revealed that among the valid 856,987 tax payers, 51,522 did not pay any taxes last year. Pakistan, with a population of 180 million, collected Rs.80 billion in 2011 in taxes.

According to official figures, each taxpayer pays Rs.13,673 as income tax every year. Only 0.6% of the population pays taxes in Pakistan, as against 4.7% in India, 58% in France and 80% in Canada.