US visa of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan rejected

Islamabad: The US Embassy in Islamabad has refused to issue a visa to Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for a concert due to non-payment of taxes on income earned in the US between 2015 and 2023.

The US Embassy said that in order to get a visa, the singer has to provide IRS documentation regarding tax payments from 2015 to 2023 and legal documents from Bollywood Events LLC. However, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan claims that he had paid all the taxes through his promoters in the US.

Rahat Fateh said in this regard that he has contacted his promoters and asked them to provide the required documents for taxes payment which will be submitted to the embassy.

The singer added that he had visited US this year and if he had not paid the taxes for the said period, the embassy would not have issued the visa in the first place.

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was supposed to go to America on November 18, 2023 to participate in a musical show organized by the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America.

The concert was booked by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's promoter Rehan Siddiqui, who himself applied for the singer's visa and provided the necessary documents to the embassy. However, the embassy rejected the visa for singer citing tax issues during 2015-23.

The documents reveal that previously the Pakistani singer has traveled to the US through four different promoters, including The Music World LLC, The Vibrant Media Group LLC, Desi Fest 2018 LLC, and Sai Productions.

Rahat claims that he received the money from these concerts after tax deduction, so it was the responsibility of the promoters to pay tax on this income in the US.

From 2012-23, all musical shows of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan were booked by his international UAE based manager/music producer Salman Ahmed.

Apart from booking shows, he was also responsible for handling Rahat Fateh's tax affairs, however due to personal reasons, the two have ended their relationship.

The singer's new handler in the US opined that someone tipped off Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's tax affairs to the embassy and it could be someone close to him.

When contacted Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's former manager/producer Salman Ahmed said that he has been with him since 2012, in the last 11 years they have done hundreds of concerts internationally and their relationship was ideal, Recently Mr. Khan to appoint his first cousin to look after all his affairs.

Dr. Asim, the organizer of the November 18 musical show, when contacted, said that whenever they invite an artist from Pakistan, they do it through some promoters.

He added that he could not imagine that the singer’s visa will be rejected on the basis of tax payment as he had visited United States just recently. ‘We had invited some other artists too and all of them got the visas except Mr. Rahat’.

“There is no way that the embassy checks tax records before issuing a visa, possibly someone whould have reported it to the embassy,” the organizer stated.

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's new promoter in America, Rehan Siddiqui while talking to private news organization stated that as a promoter this was his first show with Rahat Fateh Ali, he is not aware if his previous promoters paid the tax in the past or not. Although the visa has not been issued, it was their responsibility to pay the taxes on this trip.