ISLAMABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Thursday urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the time limit of its Amnesty Scheme till July 15.
The demand was made during FPCCI meeting chaired by Senator Haji Ghulam Ali. “FPCCI feels although the scheme is very good but the short time of five days given to taxpayers was not enough and requested the government to extend the time limit of the scheme up to July 15,” said Khalid Tawab while giving details about the meeting. The scheme would not only create confidence in the business people but would also bring additional revenues, he added.
The scheme has created win-win for both the government and the business community besides helping in creating better climate between the taxpayers and the government, he said.
Wednesday 20 July 2011
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Friday 1 July 2011
Pakistan Announces Tax Amnesty
Pakistan Announces Tax Amnesty.
As an incentive to tax payers to deposit their due taxes, the Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced an amnesty scheme, waiving penalty charges on all overdue taxes.
Pakistani Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh had announced in his budget speech that the country's budget deficit would be slashed to a four-year low of 4% of GDP in the fiscal year starting July 1. He planned that income would rise predominantly by tackling tax evasion, and it is hoped that this amnesty will help.
This is the second such scheme in three months, after the FBR offered an amnesty to the textile industry in March in an attempt to broaden the tax base. On that occasion the FBR said that it would not raise questions about previous sales tax transactions, and in return it hoped to register more than 100,000 new taxpayers.
The FBR agrees with the opinion that rewarding people for not paying taxes could put off those law abiding citizens who do follow the straight and narrow, however the Board is under considerable pressure to meet a PKR1.6 trillion (USD18.5bn) revenue collection target.
Three separate statutory regulatory orders covering income tax, sales and tax and customs duties have been issued.
Shortly after the amnesty announcement the FBR issued instructions to all Inland Revenue Offices to remain open till late in the evening on two days before the end of the month in order to provide an opportunity for taxpayers to deposit their taxes within the fiscal year.
All branches of the National Bank of Pakistan and all customs offices have also been instructed to stay open late to receive duty and taxes and to facilitate taxpayers.
As an incentive to tax payers to deposit their due taxes, the Pakistan Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced an amnesty scheme, waiving penalty charges on all overdue taxes.
Pakistani Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh had announced in his budget speech that the country's budget deficit would be slashed to a four-year low of 4% of GDP in the fiscal year starting July 1. He planned that income would rise predominantly by tackling tax evasion, and it is hoped that this amnesty will help.
This is the second such scheme in three months, after the FBR offered an amnesty to the textile industry in March in an attempt to broaden the tax base. On that occasion the FBR said that it would not raise questions about previous sales tax transactions, and in return it hoped to register more than 100,000 new taxpayers.
The FBR agrees with the opinion that rewarding people for not paying taxes could put off those law abiding citizens who do follow the straight and narrow, however the Board is under considerable pressure to meet a PKR1.6 trillion (USD18.5bn) revenue collection target.
Three separate statutory regulatory orders covering income tax, sales and tax and customs duties have been issued.
Shortly after the amnesty announcement the FBR issued instructions to all Inland Revenue Offices to remain open till late in the evening on two days before the end of the month in order to provide an opportunity for taxpayers to deposit their taxes within the fiscal year.
All branches of the National Bank of Pakistan and all customs offices have also been instructed to stay open late to receive duty and taxes and to facilitate taxpayers.
FBR freezes KESC accounts
FBR freezes KESC accounts
KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue froze the bank accounts of the KESC due to non-payment of taxes.
According to the spokesperson for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, the FBR froze the KESC bank accounts for not paying taxes worth Rs 150 million.
The spokesman said that the FBR owed Rs 1.60 billion of sales tax to the KESC.
The KESC authorities say that the account freezing was an ex parte action. The KESC will have to face trouble in buying furnace oil and running other administrative affairs due to the FBR’s action.
FBR urged to extend Amnesty Scheme limit till July 15
FBR urged to extend Amnesty Scheme limit till July 15
FBR achieves target of Rs.1,588 billion
FBR achieves target of Rs1,588 billion | ||||||||||||||
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tax authorities have crossed the revised tax collection target of Rs1,588 billion and displayed Rs1,590.462 billion in the outgoing fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2011. This has made the FBR chairman confident of the revival of the $11.3 billion IMF-sponsored programme which has been halted for 13 months.“Achieving the revenue target of up to Rs1,590 billion will ensure revival of the IMF programme,” Chairman FBR Salman Siddique said while addressing a press conference on Thursday night at the FBR headquarters. The IMF programme of Standby Arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan has been suspended since May 2010 and Islamabad failed to obtain any tranche after the completion of the fifth review. Flanked by FBR’s Member Inland Revenue Khawar Khursheed Butt, Member Customs Mumtaz Haider Rizvi, Member Israr Rauf, and spokesperson Rifat Qazi, the FBR chairman said that the fiscal deficit was the main concern of the IMF and other donors and improved tax collection and excellent expenditures management would enable Islamabad to restrict its deficit in the range of 5.2 percent of GDP. “The tax to GDP ratio will be standing at 9.2 percent with FBR’s collection of Rs1,590 billion and will go up to 9.3 percent if the board achieves Rs1,600 billion,” he said, and added that taxpayers were allowed to deposit their due taxes till midnight so the FBR expected a few billion more to land up in the national kitty. Answering another query about the allegation of advance tax collection used for crossing the target, FBR chairman said that the board itself would conduct audit to ensure that the figures were correct. “We are under the IMF programme and they will analyse the numbers with the help of their experts,” he maintained. “I can guarantee that nothing like this happened this year.” In the last financial year, the FBR collected advance taxes worth Rs5 billion to show achievement on revenue collection front. However, another top official of the government’s economic team told our sources that the country achieved its desired fiscal deficit target of just over 5.2 percent of GDP or Rs959.3 billion for outgoing fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. The fiscal deficit shot up by 0.2 percent of GDP because the US did not provide its committed amount of $381 million under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF). It was envisaged by the government that the budget deficit would be restricted at 5.1 percent of GDP or Rs916 billion but slippages on the CSF front paved the way for further spike in deficit between 5.2 to 5.3 percent of GDP. “We have fulfilled our commitment to bring borrowing from SBP to zero at the end of the fourth quarter (April-June) period by paying back Rs156 billion. It was the condition of the IMF under the $11.3 billion SBA programme that Pakistan would have to bring down borrowing from SBP to zero by end of every quarter of the fiscal year,” he said. The IDB’s loan of $160 million was dropped because the government managed to achieve its FBR’s tax target of Rs1,588 billion. The provinces also generated the desired revenue surplus of Rs120 billion because the WB loan of $162 million for health and education sectors in Punjab and Sindh could not be spent in a single day, paving the way for achieving the desired revenue surplus. “We have also received $200 million from ADB under the second generation reform project for SECP,” claimed the top official and added that everything went very well and with God’s blessing the final numbers of the fiscal deficit might slightly improve against the aimed target of 5.3 percent of GDP. The reconciled accounts will be made available after July 15, 2011 and IMF’s mission led by Adnan Mazarei will then hold crucial talks in the third week of July to explore the possibility of reviving the Fund’s SBA programme which was suspended in May 2010. End. | ||||||||||||||
FBR achies target of Rs.1,588 Billion
FBR achieves target of Rs1,588 billion | ||||||||||||||
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tax authorities have crossed the revised tax collection target of Rs1,588 billion and displayed Rs1,590.462 billion in the outgoing fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2011. This has made the FBR chairman confident of the revival of the $11.3 billion IMF-sponsored programme which has been halted for 13 months.“Achieving the revenue target of up to Rs1,590 billion will ensure revival of the IMF programme,” Chairman FBR Salman Siddique said while addressing a press conference on Thursday night at the FBR headquarters. The IMF programme of Standby Arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan has been suspended since May 2010 and Islamabad failed to obtain any tranche after the completion of the fifth review. Flanked by FBR’s Member Inland Revenue Khawar Khursheed Butt, Member Customs Mumtaz Haider Rizvi, Member Israr Rauf, and spokesperson Rifat Qazi, the FBR chairman said that the fiscal deficit was the main concern of the IMF and other donors and improved tax collection and excellent expenditures management would enable Islamabad to restrict its deficit in the range of 5.2 percent of GDP. “The tax to GDP ratio will be standing at 9.2 percent with FBR’s collection of Rs1,590 billion and will go up to 9.3 percent if the board achieves Rs1,600 billion,” he said, and added that taxpayers were allowed to deposit their due taxes till midnight so the FBR expected a few billion more to land up in the national kitty. Answering another query about the allegation of advance tax collection used for crossing the target, FBR chairman said that the board itself would conduct audit to ensure that the figures were correct. “We are under the IMF programme and they will analyse the numbers with the help of their experts,” he maintained. “I can guarantee that nothing like this happened this year.” In the last financial year, the FBR collected advance taxes worth Rs5 billion to show achievement on revenue collection front. However, another top official of the government’s economic team told our sources that the country achieved its desired fiscal deficit target of just over 5.2 percent of GDP or Rs959.3 billion for outgoing fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. The fiscal deficit shot up by 0.2 percent of GDP because the US did not provide its committed amount of $381 million under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF). It was envisaged by the government that the budget deficit would be restricted at 5.1 percent of GDP or Rs916 billion but slippages on the CSF front paved the way for further spike in deficit between 5.2 to 5.3 percent of GDP. “We have fulfilled our commitment to bring borrowing from SBP to zero at the end of the fourth quarter (April-June) period by paying back Rs156 billion. It was the condition of the IMF under the $11.3 billion SBA programme that Pakistan would have to bring down borrowing from SBP to zero by end of every quarter of the fiscal year,” he said. The IDB’s loan of $160 million was dropped because the government managed to achieve its FBR’s tax target of Rs1,588 billion. The provinces also generated the desired revenue surplus of Rs120 billion because the WB loan of $162 million for health and education sectors in Punjab and Sindh could not be spent in a single day, paving the way for achieving the desired revenue surplus. “We have also received $200 million from ADB under the second generation reform project for SECP,” claimed the top official and added that everything went very well and with God’s blessing the final numbers of the fiscal deficit might slightly improve against the aimed target of 5.3 percent of GDP. The reconciled accounts will be made available after July 15, 2011 and IMF’s mission led by Adnan Mazarei will then hold crucial talks in the third week of July to explore the possibility of reviving the Fund’s SBA programme which was suspended in May 2010. End. | ||||||||||||||
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