Pakistan fails to publish parliamentarians' tax directory for yet another year

The Pakistan government appears to have quietly abandoned the plan to publish tax directory of parliamentarians, a move that raises fresh concerns about transparency, accountability, and political will.

While the tax collection authority — the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) — has published tax directories every year from 2014 to 2019, officials confirmed that no such documents have been made public for the last few years.

Under the government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, tax directories for fiscal years 2020 onward remain unpublished.

"FBR can publish the directory within one to two days once we receive a formal directive from the federal government," a senior FBR official told Nukta on the condition of anonymity.

From 2014 onward, the FBR used to publish two directories every year — one containing information about the annual income tax paid by the lawmakers, and the other with details of all tax filers in Pakistan.

The move was prompted by an alarming revelation at the time that many elected representatives lacked a National Tax Number (NTN) or had failed to file returns. The government subsequently ordered FBR to register NTNs for all lawmakers and warned non-filers they would be excluded from the directory unless they complied.

April 15, 2014 marked a turning point when Pakistan joined a growing group of nations that publicly disclose tax data. This initiative aimed to improve compliance, build public trust, and hold elected officials to account.

In global contexts, such transparency is not unusual. In Finland, November 1 is nicknamed “National Envy Day” because tax information is published nationwide. In Norway, tax returns have been public since 1863, originally posted on the walls of town halls. Sweden permits anyone to obtain another person’s income details with a simple phone call. These practices are rooted in cultural norms that value openness and discourage excessive wealth concealment.

Nukta did not get a response till the filing of this report from the ministers of finance and information about why the directory has not been published.

Under Section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the FBR requires formal approval from the federal government to publish a full directory. In the absence of that authorization, even prepared directories remain confidential.

The tax directory initiative, once hailed as a milestone for accountability, now lies dormant. In a political climate increasingly marked by public distrust, the withholding of tax data especially of parliamentarians risks further erosion of confidence in the democratic process.