Islamabad:
The Finance Committee of the National Assembly, adopted on Wednesday a softer version of a bill to prohibit car purchases, investments in shares and properties beyond a certain value by non -eligible persons, but linked its approval by the National Assembly with the budget.
Directed by PPPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, the Committee instructed that the modified version of the Fiscal Law Law (amendment) 2024 will be included in the Finance Law 2025. The Committee also decided that the approval of the modified bill will ensure the National Assembly together with the budget of next fiscal year.
Unlike the past, when the National Finance Committee of the Assembly was not allowed to discuss the Finance Law draft, this time the Committee would go through the new tax proposals after changes in the rules.
The modified version is quite different from the original bill proposed by the Federal Income Board. It exempts an important segment of the society of the applicability of the law. The definition of eligible people has expanded and the list of assets that can be used to justify the purchase has expanded.
The committee’s decision occurred to the recommendation of a subcommittee in which I used Mela and MNA of PTI Jawed Hanif played important roles.
The Government had introduced the draft amendment of tax laws in the National Assembly to prohibit the economic transactions of inelegable persons, those who do not have enough equivalent resources declared in cash to buy a property.
According to the proposed legal amendment, a person cannot buy a property until the assets declared in the tax statements of their last year are sufficient for the purchase or the person will submit a new statement to reveal the source of buying the property. The FBR has not yet developed a safe technological solution in real time where the buyer is required to present the statement.
The FBR had proposed section 114C as an additional declaration layer and the FBR still had the legal authority to verify those assets, once the buyer presented his income and wealth account every year.
There are two significant amendments by the Permanent Committee. According to a change in section 114c proposal, the new law cannot be implemented without determining the value threshold by the federal government. The “property transactions made by common citizens and the low and medium income class, particularly first -time buyers or those who buy their main residential property, are not affected by the new legislation.
The definition of eligible people has also been expanded by including the assets of immediate family members to justify the purchase.
It is important to note that the definition of “sufficient resources” has also been expanded by adding local and foreign currencies, fair value of gold market, a net value of the shares, bonds, accounts receivable or any other equivalent asset in cash that is prescribed. “
In the past, the Government had also imposed tax withholding to encourage people to become tax files. But people have been submitting tax statements only for undertaking a property transaction and the FBR seemed satisfied to obtain only an additional amount of taxes instead of prosecuting them for not paying their taxes on real income.
It was also decided that even if section 114C was approved in the budget; It would not come into force until the federal government notifies the exemption value. The committee also modified the clause related to the members of the immediate family and introduced the definition of dependent children instead of using the terms son and daughter.
The non -resident Pakistani and the companies that are listed will be exempt from presenting the dissemination of additional information.
Some of the members of the committee had expressed reservations on the relaxation of these definitions. The committee’s decision will exclude 95% of people from the reach of the new amendments and means that there can never be a true documentation in Pakistan, “said Mna Jawed Hanif Khan in February this year.
ZTBL turns around
The National Assembly expressed reservations against the government’s decision to sell the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited despite having been changed and being the only specialized bank that serves the little privileged agricultural community.
The Committee decided to raise the issue of ZTBL privatization in the National Assembly to pressure the Government to leave the transaction.
The ZTBL list in the privatization program has stopped progress in the new information technology programs and we cannot even hire a person despite pressing needs, ZTBL president, Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti, informed the Permanent Committee.
Being a three times a former privatization minister, I can feel that the bank’s privatization cannot occur in the next two years and there is no justification to stop the important work at the bank, said Syed Naveed Qamar.
