IMF not in favour of tax amnesties
 

ISLAMABAD: With approval of Asset Declaration Scheme 2019 in the National Assembly through Finance Bill on Friday, the government will have to promulgate another ordinance in case of granting extension in the tax amnesty scheme after expiry of deadline on June 30.However, the IMF has opposed, on the basis of, principle for supporting any amnesty scheme. When the IMF’s Resident Chief in Pakistan Teresa Daban Sanchez was contacted and asked about Fund view on granting extension in deadline of amnesty scheme when the IMF Board was going to consider Pakistan’s request for bailout package, she replied, “The IMF is not in favour of tax amnesties. Cross country experience shows that tax amnesties have usually hugely costs, such are undermining taxpayers’ morale and sense of fairness that more than offset potential short term gains”.When contacted, FBR’s Member Inland Revenue Policy and Spokesman Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar on Friday said that Parliament granted its assent on Asset Declaration Scheme 2019 with approval of Finance Bill 2019 so this scheme under the law would expire on June 30, 2019. Now the sources said that the government would have to promulgate fresh ordinance if it wanted to grant extension in the amnesty scheme because it was going to enactment as law after signing of President on this bill.The official said that so far total Payment Slip of Identification of Declaration (PSID) submitted with payment of taxes stood at 12,000 and more than Rs10 billion deposited in the system. “We expect that the FBR will attract Rs30 to Rs35 billion in shape of tax amnesty scheme”, said the official.He said that the government allowed in certain cases to show lenient attitude and facilitated taxpayers to submit the declaration form without depositing the tax amount into bank account. Some taxpayers had contacted to premier and asked him that they wanted to declare their assets but they did not have cash in hand so in such cases the FBR allowed to submit declaration forms.The taxpayers downloaded 40,000 forms from the FBR for availing themselves of tax amnesty but they did not know how many were going to avail themselves of this scheme.One top official reminded that they were expecting Rs25 to Rs30 billion on eve of last tax amnesty scheme in June 2018 but it ended up with payment of taxes to the tune of Rs90 billion for last financial year so it could be guess work and the FBR was expecting good response for this ongoing scheme. However, senior officials were of the view that this amnesty could attract around Rs30 to Rs40 billion within the ongoing fiscal year ending on June 30, 2019.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/gnVb1TWcsm0

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