The latest report issued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed Karachi as the highest tax paying city in the country.
The survey was conducted in various markets across the country. Accounts showed that the traders, retailers and wholesalers of Karachi collected a tax of Rs 8,610,263,771 with only 52,808 tax filers. This sum is drastically greater than the amount collected by the city of Lahore where a greater number of registered tax filers- 55,342 precisely- paid only Rs 5,219,983,079.
The survey showed that six markets of Karachi, namely from the President, Tariq Road, Clifton, Golimar, DHA and Johar. collected a total of Rs 30 million.
The city also houses the highest number of high tax payers (those who pay more than Rs 100.000 tax annually) totaling to 6,468 as compared to Lahore where these high payers numbered 4,971.
An analysis of the highest average tax paid among major cities showed that residents of the capital city of Islamabad gave Rs 14,950 on average whereas residents of Karachi paid Rs 12,091.
Compared to this, the figures for average tax paid for the city of Lahore were remarkably low at Rs 9,651.
The report showed that Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan were the top cities with the largest number of tax filers.
In total, only 312,361 traders are paying their taxes as compared to the number of registered businesses in the country. Despite efforts by the government to loop in as many as possible, there remains a significant number of people frauding the system and consuming money illegally.
