Shaukat Tarin backs beginning of tax culture with parliamentarians

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin on Monday backed the start of tax culture with parliamentarians to be followed by others.

"Steps are being taken to bring transparency and simplification in the tax system," the ministers aid while addressing a function on the occasion of launching the Tax directory of parliamentarians. 

Tarin said whoever is powerful in Pakistan evades tax, adding it's unfortunate the state is not even able to meet current expenses from its revenues.

"We will find out who has how much income through ID card, we will not harass anyone but everyone has to pay tax."

The minister said there should be no tax other than income tax and the goods and services tax (GST). 

He added out of a population of 220 million, only 3 million people pay tax, tax net needs to be increased to flow revenue.

"If you want to create a tax culture, you have to start with members of the parliament," he said adding that Tarin has said tax reform is aimed at ensuring transparency.