ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue is likely to pass the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016 today (Tuesday).
At the beginning of current month, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented the Amnesty Scheme Bill in the National Assembly under which different privileges have been provided to the tax defaulters and they are provided opportunity to legalize their money up to Rs 500 million .
According to the bill, the traders are allowed to get legal status of their businesses by depositing a certain amount of taxes.
On Monday, NA Finance Committee discussed the bill in details and was about to pass it; however, deferred voting on the bill in a bid to avoid walk out and note of dissent by opposition members.
Moreover, Committee Chairman Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh directed Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman and the Finance Secretary to provide detailed report with regard to the questions raised by the members of the committee on the outcome of the amnesty schemes launched by the government since 1947.
Since opposition members were not ready to get this bill passed unanimously, therefore, the committee pended other agenda items including Foreign Exchange Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2014, Equity Participation Fund (Repeal) Bill 2014, the Offences in Respect of banks (Special Coutts) (Amendment) Act 2015, the Cost and Management Accountants (Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Banks (Nationalization) (Amendment) Bill,2015.
Similarly agenda items related to briefing by Secretary, Ministry of Finance, on the State of Pakistan’s economy as well as Chairman FBR on Rs 40 billion tax, recently imposed by the Government on different item were also pended by the house.
According to Chairman Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh, the committee will pass the said bill to drag national economy out a state of stagnant because traders were halted from paying their due taxes only because of indecisiveness on this issue.
He further told this scribe that government was in hurry to bulldoze the bill by dint of brute majority from the house therefore government had postponed voting on the bill till today just to get a harmonized democratic environment within the committee.
