KARACHI – A woman named Maryam Ali from Karachi has become the highesttaxpayer under the government’s recent tax amnesty scheme. Maryam Alideclared her total assets of Rs 165 billion and paid a tax of Rs 3.3billion on them.
Pakistani nationals have so far declared assets worth 1.8 trillion in totaland paid a tax of Rs 97 billion.
The Finance Ministry told that public response to the scheme has beenpositive since its launch in April 2018. The statement by the ministryadded,
Public response to the schemes has been positive. So far, 55,225declarations have been filed in which declared value of foreign assets isaround Rs 577 billion and that of domestic assets is around Rs 1,192billion. In addition, $40 million has been repatriated. This response tothe amnesty schemes has been unprecedented.
Out of the total tax collected, Rs 36 billion were collected on foreignassets while the rest – Rs 61 billion – came from local assets.
The scheme was introduced by the outgoing PML-N government at the end ofits tenure. The previous government announced two schemes in totalnamed Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Ordinance, 2018 thatwere applicable on liquid as well as immovable assets.
The initial deadline to declare assets under the amnesty scheme was June 3o– which was extended till July 31st 2018. A tax rate of 2% is applied toany foreign assets brought back to Pakistan while the rest are declaredunder 5% tax.
FBR has set up dedicated helplines and emails to address the issuesregarding the amnesty scheme. Tax in dollars on foreign assets will bedeposited into SBP’s account through the wire transfer.