ISLAMABAD – Federal government is mulling to withdraw its tax exemptionscheme that is benefitting only the elite class, said Finance Minister AsadUmar on Tuesday.
He made these remarks while addressing a launch ceremony of a book writtenby the country’s top economist Dr. Abdul Hafiz Pasha.
The book titled, ‘Pakistan – Agenda for Reforms’ is financed by a Germaninstitute Friedrich Ebert Stiftung under the theme of ‘Economy of Tomorrow.’
During his address, Asad Umar praised Dr. Hafiz as a visionary Pakistan’snumber one economist.
While reflecting on the country’s current economic situation, Asad said thegovernment was reviewing the tax exemptions being enjoyed by the eliteclass and that they were planning to withdraw them.
He maintained that not all the exemptions benefited the elite as the publicat large was availing some of them as well.
On the occasion, Dr. Hafiz Pasha revealed that only income tax concessionsfor the elite class were estimated at Rs. 400 billion.
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To which the finance minister said they were reviewing the tax scheme,adding that the government will abolish the withholding tax on bankingtransactions in the next budget.
The PML-N government had imposed a 0.6 percent tax on banking transactionsfor non-filers.
Umar said the tax was causing more damage to the economy than the benefitof Rs. 30 billion it generated for FBR.
Previously, Dr. Pasha had identified 41 types of different withholdingtaxes that were not contributing to the income tax collection – Umar hintedat withdrawing at least half of them in the coming budget.
He, however, endorsed the idea of wealth and capital gains tax saying thatthe residual wealth beyond a certain threshold should also be taxed.
