ISLAMABAD: With the 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 the June 30 deadline.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's view on granting extension in the deadline of amnesty scheme when the IMF Board is going to consider Pakistan’s request for bailout package, she replied, “The IMF is not in favour of tax amnesties. Cross country experience shows tax amnesties have usually huge costs, such as undermining taxpayers’ moral and sense of fairness that more than offsets the potential short term gains”.When contacted, FBR’s Member Inland Revenue Policy and Spokesman Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar on Friday said the Parliament granted its assent to the Asset Declaration Scheme 2019 with the approval of Finance Bill 2019 so this scheme under the law would expire on June 30, 2019. Now the sources said the government would have to promulgate a fresh ordinance if it wants to grant extension in the amnesty scheme because it is going to enact as law after signing of the bill by the President. The official said so far total Payment Slip of Identification of Declaration (PSID) submitted with payment of taxes stood at 12,000 and more than Rs10 billion were deposited in the system. “We expect that the FBR will attract Rs30 to Rs35 billion in the shape of tax amnesty scheme,”said the official.He said the government allowed in certain cases to show a lenient attitude and facilitated taxpayers to submit the declaration form without depositing the tax amount into the bank account. Some taxpayers had contacted the 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 them to submit declaration forms. The taxpayers downloaded 40,000 forms from the FBR for availing themselves of the 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 the last tax amnesty scheme in June 2018 but it ended up with payment of taxes to the tune of Rs90 billion, so it could be anybody's guess this time but the FBR is expecting good response for this scheme. However, senior officials are of the view that this amnesty could attract around Rs30 to Rs40 billion within the ongoing fiscal year ending on June 30, 2019.
06-29-2019, 12:09 PM
IMF not in favour of tax amnesties: resident chief
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