Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif has paid personal tax amounting to Rs35.9 million over 23 years, starting from 1993-2016.
The details were released by the National Assembly Secretariat today, following the premier’s submission of his personal and business tax details yesterday to the speaker of the house.
Tax records for the years of 2007-2009 are missing in the details provided. The premier resumed paying taxes during fiscal year 2009-2010, during which he paid Rs2.7 million in tax.
For the current fiscal year, the prime minister has paid tax amounting to Rs2.5 million.
Taxes paid by Sharif Group
The Sharif Group paid taxes amounting to Rs9.8 billion from October 1993 to April 2016.
Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd and Ramzan Sugar Mills Ltd paid taxes amounting to Rs5 billion and Rs4 billion respectively, during the period mentioned.
Earlier yesterday, during Nawaz’s much awaited National Assembly address, he spoke about the history of his family businesses, arguing that his father had left him enough money to buy properties in London.
However, his address to a packed lower house did not impress the opposition, which walked out in unison, instead of responding to the prime minister’s claim that his family had made its businesses profitable, even under adverse circumstances.
The PM presented documentary evidence of taxes worth Rs10 billion, which his family had paid over the past 23 years, and details of the sale of two steel mills; one in the UAE which was sold in 1980 for 33.37 million dirhams, and another in Saudi Arabia, whose sale netted his family $17m in 2005.