ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the consolidated data, National Assembly’s Sub-Committee on National Health Services (NHS) has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to submit a breakdown of taxes paid by the private hospitals of Islamabad.

The meeting, held in the parliament house, was chaired by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) legislator Amjad Ali Khan.

The FBR had informed that private hospitals paid Rs1.464 billion in taxes in 2025, up from Rs350 million in 2020, in addition to Rs7.4 billion in withholding taxes.

Chairman Committee Amjad Ali Khan, while talking to Dawn, said that the FBR refused to provide the breakdown of the taxes paid by each of the hospitals.

“We have directed the FBR to provide data under Rule 227 of Business. FBR is bound to share the data as per rules. These hospitals have got plots free of cost or at concessional rates. We want to make sure that hospitals have been paying proper taxes,” he said.

“We also discussed matters related to the Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority (IHRA) and were shocked to see that IHRA did not have any idea about its powers and functions. IHRA has to register health facilities and then it has to issue licenses but till date IHRA has not issued a single licence to any hospital. Moreover, it has not fixed rates of surgeries, procedures and diagnostics,” he said.

Amjad Ali Khan said that almost eight months ago a person died in a prominent hospital of the federal capital due to which NA health committee decided to establish a sub-committee to look into the issues related to private hospitals.

“We investigated the death and reached to a conclusion that it was due to negligence of the hospital. The matter was referred to IHRA but it imposed a fine of just Rs400,000 on the hospital. I came to know that the IHRA head himself runs a medical college and hospital and same was the case with a number of members of the IHRA. No one bothered about the conflict of interest while appointing them,” he said.

“We directed the IHRA to reinvestigate the case as Rs 400,000 cannot be reasonable amount for a life,” Chairman Committee Amjad Ali Khan said.

Earlier, the committee members criticised IHRA for being toothless.

Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro and others members asked why IHRA had fired 16 employees and they demanded an explanation from the authority.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2025