Pakistani woman Maryam Ali declares assets worth Rs 165 billion, pays Rs 3.3 billion tax
Shares
KARACHI - A woman named Maryam Ali from Karachi has become the highest taxpayer under the government’s recent tax amnesty scheme. Maryam Ali declared her total assets of Rs 165 billion and paid a tax of Rs 3.3 billion on them.
Pakistani nationals have so far declared assets worth 1.8 trillion in total and paid a tax of Rs 97 billion.
The Finance Ministry told that public response to the scheme has been positive since its launch in April 2018. The statement by the ministry added,
Public response to the schemes has been positive. So far, 55,225 declarations have been filed in which declared value of foreign assets is around Rs 577 billion and that of domestic assets is around Rs 1,192 billion. In addition, $40 million has been repatriated. This response to the amnesty schemes has been unprecedented.
Out of the total tax collected, Rs 36 billion were collected on foreign assets while the rest – Rs 61 billion – came from local assets.
The scheme was introduced by the outgoing PML-N government at the end of its tenure. The previous government announced two schemes in total named Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Ordinance, 2018 that were 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 to any foreign assets brought back to Pakistan while the rest are declared under 5% tax.
FBR has set up dedicated helplines and emails to address the issues regarding the amnesty scheme. Tax in dollars on foreign assets will be deposited into SBP’s account through the wire transfer.
