Government set to go public with data of 53 mn people.

• Position: Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue, National Database and Registration Authority web portals - Report

In a bid to capture real incomes of people, the government announced on Friday to make the 'treasure trove' of 53 million persons public, but it has not yet transformed the data into actionable information that may minimise the chances of its effective utility.

The information about 53 million people will be available on the web portals of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), said FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi.

The nature of data available on the NADRA website is different from the information available on FBR's website. NADRA has not been granted access to the bank accounts of the citizens, as it does not have such mandate. But the FBR has got information of about 50 million bank accounts that it wants to use to assess the real incomes of the people.

Due to FBR's capacity constraints, it will not be able to go after all the people. FBR Member Inland Revenue Policy Dr Hamid Atiq Sarwar said that next month, FBR would go...