NA Standing Committee on Finance okays tax laws bill

The National Assembly Standing Committee of Finance and Economic Affairs here on Tuesday approved the Tax Laws Amendment Bill 2012 and the Cost and Management Amendment bill 2013.The bill of Cost and Management Amendment was passed unanimously in the meeting of committee held under the chairmanship of MNA Khawaja Sohail Mansoor.While the bill of Tax Laws Amendment 2012 was passed with the majority in the meeting but the MQM opposed the bill by staging walkout from the meeting of committee.The Tax Laws Bill was moved to launch the amnesty scheme to those who were identified as non-tax payers by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) by accessing the data of NADRA.Speaking in the meeting of the committee, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Ali Arshad Hakeem told the committee that the figure of non-tax payers which were identified by FBR through access of data of NADRA had increased from 2.9 million to 3.8 million.Of total, about 0.2 million would not be eligible to benefit from this scheme due to their income, spending and frequent travels locally and abroad which is higher than others, he added.Chairman FBR said that currently 3.2 per cent of total population was paying tax and after the scheme, it would be increased by 2.2 per cent to 5.4 per cent while 5 per cent of total population was paying the taxes in India.Through the amnesty scheme, about Rs.125 billion extra would be added to national exchequer.The scheme will last for three months and if any one declares an amount of Rs.5 million, he can benefit from the scheme by depositing Rs.40,000 in first month and Rs.50,000 in second month and Rs.70,000 in third month.According to the scheme, if any one declares an amount above Rs.5 million, he can benefit by depositing 1 per cent in first month of total amount declared amount and 1.5 per cent in second month and 2.5 per cent in third month.Under the scheme, if anyone fails to deposit an amount within time limit, after 75 days his CNIC would be blocked after approval of Chairman FBR.Moreover, the sitting government public office holders would not be eligible to benefit from the scheme.