Only 20% of Registered Companies Are Paying Sales Tax: FBR

Around 40,000 sales tax registered companies are paying sales tax against 200.000 registered companies with the FBR. FBR data revealed that the sales tax base totaled between 40,000 to 60,000 who are paying sales tax including those depositing very low amounts of sales tax. Total sales tax registration of companies with the FBR stood at nearly 200,000 including nil-filers of sales tax returns. Income tax data disclosed that nearly 5,000 big companies are practically compliant taxpayers within the corporate sector and paying 90 percent of the total corporate income tax collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) per annum. These 5,000 companies are doing business in the country as far as tax compliance is concerned. The total number of companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) stood at nearly 125,000. Out of these registered companies, 50,000 are filing their income tax returns. Within the category of 50,000 return filers, half of the companies (25,000) are filing nil returns with zero payment of tax. Out of 25,000 active companies, 5,000 big companies are actually doing business and paying 90 percent of the corporate income tax. A total of around 300 companies are registered with five leading sectors.