Real estate is 'parking lot' of untaxed money: former FBR chief.

LAHORE -- Shabbar Zaidi, the former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue, said 70 per cent of the entire tax collected in Pakistan was paid by just 300 companies, giving a shut-up call to the businesses who brag about paying taxes.

'I know very well who pays how much tax. The collective tax of all the bazaars of Lahore is less than only the Liaqatabad Bazaar of Karachi.'

Shabbar Zaidi was replying to the claims of his fellow panelist businessman who made claims of paying tax, saying there were too many taxes in Pakistan and no dividends.

The talk was going on in a session on 'Taxation and Development' moderated by Prof Sher Aghan Asad of LUMS on the concluding day of the EconFest held by PIDE at Alhamra Art Centre on Sunday.

Mr Zaidi said the real estate was 'the parking lot' of untaxed money. 'With the support of the DHAs and army, we have developed a system to officially untaxed money. The real estate has got perpetual amnesty in the country.'

Calls for removing DHAs from the real estate business

He said as the FBR chairman, he had taken steps to discourage tax on the real estate and business of the 'files' of the plots had stopped. I was called by the chief of army staff and he had complained against my steps, saying it (DHAs) was the business of 'their people'. He said ultimately, the DHAs would have to be removed from the real estate business as there could not be business 'if a state institution with all the power in the competition (of real estate) in the private sector'. He said there could not be checks on DHAs and you could not even tell who and who were the owners of the plots there.

Shabbar Zaidi said 'when plots became parking lots, they get out of reach of the poor sections of society'. He suggested that 'if construction is not done on a plot of land, it should be confiscated' while the GORs and Governor House should be done away with.

Ikramul Haq, the columnist and lawyer, said the land worth billions of rupees owned by the government was in cities and Pakistan was not out of the colonial hangover. He said the PAS, earlier called DMG, had destroyed the country's economy, followed by the judiciary besides the establishment.

'There are so many amnesties, so many DHAs where property business is done. There is hardly any city left in the country where there is no DHA because nobody asks a question (from the investors in the DHA).' He lamented that there were frequent amnesties on declaration of assets and there was haphazard...