ISLAMABAD: In bid to broaden tax net in the country, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is likely to announce an amnesty scheme for Pakistanis to declare their foreign assets by paying a nominal tax.
This was revealed by FBR Chairman Dr Muhammad Irshad during the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue meeting held under the chairmanship of its Chairman Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh. De Irshad informed the committee that the FBR has received a proposal of declaring foreign assets by paying a tax.
Qaiser Ahmed Shaikh said that tax reforms commission had proposed to announce such scheme by paying only 15 percent tax on the foreign assets. He opposed the tax rate and said that it should be only five percent.
The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry also proposed to charge only five percent for declaring foreign assets. However, PTI’s MNA Asad Umar strongly opposed the scheme. He said that the government is facilitating the non-taxpayers of the country by announcing an amnesty scheme. He said that government is announcing amnesty scheme every years but it has failed to achieve desired results of bringing non-taxpayers into tax base. The government should charge full tax, around 35 percent, from those who wants to declare their foreign assets, he added.
According to an FBR official, the government will give amnesty scheme under Foreign Asset Tax Bill, 2017. He said that FBR had not information about exact amount of Pakistanis assets placed in other countries. However, he said that Pakistanis have kept about $150 billion worth of assets abroad, as per AF Ferguson’s assessment.
