ISLAMABAD – Minister for State on Finance and Revenue, Rana Mohammad Afzaldisclosed on Tuesday that the federal government had planned to introducean amnesty for Pakistanis having undisclosed foreign assets by March 15.
Addressing a ceremony at Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA),the minister said that the amnesty scheme had been finalised in a bid toprovide an opportunity to people for bringing back their foreign assets tothe country.
The lawmaker expressed that the government had planned to rationalise taxrates in the upcoming budget adding that in order to provide relief tosalaried class, the government would propose raising the minimum thresholdfor charging income tax to Rs800,000 from current Rs400,000.
“The government is also devising a plan to reduce the corporate income taxrate from 30 percent to 20 percent in a phased manner,” he said.
The legislator added that the government was focusing on increasing foreignexchange reserves primarily due to the pending payment of $3 billion to theIMF.
The PML-N leader said that the foreign exchange reserves had declined dueto a significant increase in imports adding that the import bill during thelast fiscal year was $55 billion which included imports of power generatingand other machinery, Geo News reported.
Commenting on payment of sales tax refund, he said the government had set adeadline of February 15 for releasing all outstanding refunds but due toengagements of the finance ministry regarding the Financial Action TaskForce (FATF), the refund payments were delayed.
“There is no change in policy for sales tax refunds and around Rs160billion refunds were payable,” he said and added that all those refundclaims where Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) had been issued would be paidinstantly.