The PTI-led government has convened meeting of important selected
stakeholders including top businessmen, chartered accountants and
consultants on Tuesday (today) to decide the fate of proposed tax
amnesty scheme.
The
government is also considering slapping different range of rate for
proposed tax amnesty scheme with maximum 15 percent till June 30 and
afterwards doubling and tripling this rate up to June 2020. The
stakeholders in the range of 10 to 15 have been invited for consultation
in order to hold
meaningful dialogue with them.
One top official
of FBR confirmed to The News on Monday night that Adviser to PM on
Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh wanted to hold consultation with 10 to 15
renowned businessmen, chartered accountants and consultants to make up
his final mind for launching of propose amnesty scheme before finalising
fresh bailout package from the IMF.
There are total 55 million
account holders in the country and according to rough estimates the
ratio of Benami account holders possessed a significant number so there
is no other solution but to give them last chance to avail the upcoming
amnesty. There are two solutions either to confiscate Benami accounts
with immediate effect or give them last chance.
“We have proposed
to the government to provide longer period for availing this scheme as
the rate should be minimum up to June 30, 2010 but it should be doubled
for end September or December 2019 and it should be tripled for end June
2020,” said the official.
The number of return filers stood at
over 1.6 million while number of account holders’ stands into millions.
Some rough estimates suggest the ratio of Benami account holders might
run into few hundreds of thousands so all such accounts could not
confiscate in one go. The banking system might disrupt so there is no
other option but to give last chance to such person who possessed Benami
accounts, they added.
The federal cabinet had rejected the
propose amnesty scheme in existing shape after holding two days meeting
and then directed the authorities concerned to come back with further
fine tuning of this scheme. In the meanwhile the former finance minister
Asad Umar tendered his resignation.
Now the newly appointed
Adviser to PM on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired a meeting on
Sunday to review the proposed amnesty scheme. Now the high-powered
meeting comprising of selected persons will be held today to firm up
proposed tax amnesty scheme.
The PTI government has also decided
to allow businessmen to adjust their balance sheets for bringing their
real assets and income on books through availing upcoming tax amnesty
scheme.
The FBR, the sources said, was also working on profiling
of those potential individuals who were living luxurious life style and
living in posh areas but they never bothered to come into tax net. “We
are collaborating with Nadra and this data may run into few millions,”
said the official and added that this data was still in raw form so they
were making efforts to convert it into such profiles that might help
the FBR to broaden its narrowed tax base. In the past all such efforts
in collaboration with Nadra had met with failure.