LAHORE: Federal Board Revenue (FBR) Chairperson Rukhsana Yasmin lamented on Monday that tax amnesty scheme is not producing appreciable results in Punjab. All the people who belong from Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Bahawalpur and Sargodha must avail the tax amnesty scheme to legalize hidden assets within or outside the country.
This was stated by Chairperson Federal Board of Revenue Rukhsana Yasmeen while addressing the chartered accountants in Corporate Regional Tax Office (CRTO) Lahore.
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On July 16, 2018, Rukhsana Yasmeen chaired a meeting of all leading chartered accountants, President Lahore Tax Bar Association, President Sheikhupura Tax Bar Association, General Secretary Pakistan Tax Bar Association as well as senior officers of Corporate Regional Tax Office, Regional Tax Office-II, Lahore and Large Taxpayers Unit, Lahore.
Addressing the gathering, chairperson FBR Rukhsana Yasmeen highlighted that population of the country is increasing day by day so expenses are also rising due to this reason. Tax loss cannot be afforded by the government so if anybody buys a home worth millions of rupees and he/she avoids to pay a single penny in tax that is not possible and not go for long run.
She said that there is lot of potential in major cities of Punjab to avail tax amnesty scheme but she doesn’t know that what is the reason that people are not showing interest in the scheme, besides tax amnesty scheme is most beneficial for capitalists and citizens of Pakistan.
“The sum of whole Punjab’s revenue, in accordance with tax amnesty scheme, is equivalent to Karachi’s,” she remarked.
The FBR chairperson shed light on the number of people who have benefited from tax amnesty scheme so far, “Before June 30, we used to receive four thousand calls on daily basis and 50 to 53 thousand people benefited from the scheme during that time but since then only two thousand have been added to that list.”
The chairperson FBR pointed out that though the response has been positive but it does not commensurate with the quantum of undeclared assets of business community, especially of Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Sialkot.
Rukhsana Yasmeen shared that now Federal Board of Revenue is connected with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data, having complete information about the particulars of Pakistani nationals who have undeclared properties in UK, Dubai and other countries.
She added now FBR is also in possession of quantum of rental income earned from them. She urged the participants to play a proactive role in creating awareness about the benefits of Tax Amnesty Scheme among the business community of these cites, enabling them to declare their undeclared assets and get immunity on them for future.
In the seminar, member information technology (IT) of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Khawaja Adnan Zaheer stated that there is no chance in the extension of date in tax amnesty scheme so most of Pakistanis must avail this compatible scheme to legalize their hidden assets.
Chief Commissioner Corporate Regional Tax office (CRTO) Syed Nadeem Hussain Rizvi and chief commissioner RTO-II Lahore Asim Majid Khan also participated in the seminar.
