ISLAMABAD – Announcing amnesty for industry, the Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) Wednesday urged the industrialists and manufacturers to takeadvantage of the Asset Declaration Scheme and clear their past sales taxliabilities by paying just two percent tax till June 30, 2019 or the lawwould take its due course after the expiry of the data.
“A special clause has been included in the Asset Declaration Scheme, whichwas not included in it earlier, which is that if anybody is having salestax liability he or she may clear these by paying just two percent tax,”the Chairman FBR, Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi said while addressing a pressconference at FBR house here.
He said that currently there were around 341,174 industrial electricityconnection and 7000 industrial gas connections, however compared to thisthe sales tax registration of industry was just 38,937, which he said was ahuge gap.
“It is my request to all industrial consumers to take advantage of thescheme before June 30 and may be it (the scheme) do not remain in the sameshape after July 1st,” so the people using industrial utility connectionsshould take advantage, the Chairman added.
He said that there were possibilities that these industrial consumerconnections might include some connections that come under cotton industryunder law, however, added that there was dire need to check this hugedifference.
“It would be our desire that under the special clause placed in AssetDeclaration Scheme, the industries falling in the category pay two percentto clear past liabilities,” the chairman added.He said that after July 1st, the FBR would make necessary legislation toget these industries and manufacturers registered and would also takeactions.
He urged the media to sensitize people on the issue so that those avoidingto clear their past sales tax liabilities might realize this gap and getregistered with FBR by taking advantage of the Asset Declaration Scheme.
He said that the FBR would try its best to make it voluntary and do notindulge in harassment, as it wanted to create environment for thebusinesses.
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To a question, the FBR Chairman said that there were around 3.1 millioncommercial consumers, however added that the strategy on how to get theunregistered consumers to get registered with FBR would be shared withmedia.To another questions, the Chairman FBR said that there were over one lackcompanies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP), however just 50,000 were filing their returns.
He said that it was high time for those having industrial connections toget registered with FBR and take benefit of the Tax Declaration Scheme.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government last week had announcedAsset Declaration Scheme, providing one more opportunity to all Pakistanicitizens to declare and legalize undisclosed assets inside and outside thecountry by paying just four percent taxes on all assets other than realestate.
The scheme would be applicable till June 30, and all Pakistan citizens,other than those holding public offices or their dependents, would be ableto take benefit from it.
The basic purpose of the scheme was to document economy and make the deadassets functional to promote economy by encouraging businessmen toparticipate in the legal economy.
