ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has intensified its enforcement drive across the country against tax evasion in the private healthcare sector by placing Inland Revenue Service (IRS) officers directly at the premises of commercial hospitals and clinics, senior tax officials told Dawn on Thursday.

The move marks a shift toward on-site monitoring as authorities seek to curb underreporting of taxable income in one of the country’s most lucrative professional sectors. The initiative gained mom­entum in the wake of the poor tax compliance of doctors in the tax year 2025.

Official figures compiled by the FBR show that a large share of Pakistan’s medical profession remains outside the tax net, while a minimal number of those on the tax rolls declared extremely low annual incomes in their tax returns for TY2025.

Of the 319,572 registered doctors nationwide, only 130,243 are registered on the income tax rolls, representing 40.75 per cent of the total. Even within this already narrow base, just 56,267 doctors filed income tax returns for TY2025, only 43.20pc of those exist on tax rolls with the tax authorities, placing the profession among the least compliant sectors in the tax system.

Moreover, even among those who filed tax returns, income declarations point to widespread underreporting, raising questions about enforcement, transparency, and the credibility of declared earnings within one of the country’s most established and high earning professions.

Officers deputed at private hospitals to monitor revenue and ensure tax compliance

A senior tax official told Dawn that the FBR has begun deploying IRS officers directly at the premises of commercial entities, including private hospitals and clinics, to strengthen monitoring and enforcement. According to the official, these officers are tasked with observing the provision of medical services and the collection of receipts in real time.

In the first phase, officers have been posted at 50 commercial hospitals under Section 175-C of the Income Tax Ordinance. The objective is to identify underreporting of revenues, particularly from high inpatient occupancy charges that, in some cases, exceed the rates charged by five star hotels.

Tax returns analysis

“We will identify non-compliant doctors through this exercise,” the official said, adding that private notices are being issued to encourage voluntary compliance. The official noted that voluntary compliance from doctors has already begun following the issuance of these notices.

The data place the number of registered doctors on the tax rolls at 130,243, of whom 56,287 filed income tax returns in TY2025, about 43pc of those registered. Among the filers, 48,704 doctors declared income, representing roughly 87pc of those who submitted returns.

Official figures showed that only around two in five registered doctors filed income tax returns in TY2025, with an even smaller share reporting taxable income.

However, 7,583 doctors reported zero income in their tax returns for TY2025.

Further analysis of the returns showed that 30,000 doctors of the 48,704 doctors have declared less than Rs2 million annual income, which accounted for 61.59pc of all doctors who declared taxable income in their returns. This percentage goes to 65 percent of total return filers, who declared less than Rs2 million annual income.

Moreover, most doctors fall in the lower reported income brackets.

Within the below Rs2m income bracket, the breakdown of tax returns declarations further highlights the scale of low declared earnings.

As many as 341 doctors reported annual income between Re1 and Rs100,000 in their returns, 17,647 doctors declared income ranging from Rs100,000 to Rs1m, while 12,959 reported annual earnings between Rs1m and Rs2m for TY2025.

According to data, a sharp decline in the number of doctors as income levels rise. The data show 6,655 doctors fall within the Rs2m to Rs3m annual income bracket, 6,959 doctors are in the Rs3m to Rs5m range, and 3,093 doctors declared annual income between Rs5m and Rs10m.

At the highest end of the scale, only 1,050 doctors declared annual income exceeding Rs10m in TY2025.According to the FBR, statistics highlight two gaps, first between registered doctors and those filing their tax returns, and second between filers and the income levels declared with the largest concentration of declarations below Rs2m per year in TY2025.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2025