'Assets declaration scheme likely to get encouraging response'

The focal person of assets declaration scheme at the Corporate Regional Tax Office (CRTO) Lahore, Jamshaid Fakhri Dahir, said on Wednesday that he was receiving more queries about the scheme comparing with the last amnesty scheme announced by the PML-N government. Dahir was responding to media query while heading a team of tax officers to make presentation to the members of Lahore Stock Exchange. He was accompanied by Deputy Commissioners Inland Revenue, Ali Hassan Warraich and Shahzad Ali Khan. The FBR team responded to the practical problems faced by the LSE members in availing the scheme.
While avoiding to share the number of persons having availed this scheme so far, he restricted himself to suggest that the number of queries was higher than the previous one.
When pointed out that there is a general impression that response against the Assets Declaration Ordinance 2019 is very poor, Dahir, who is holding the office of Commissioner Inland Revenue at the CRTO Lahore, said one reason of it could be the long Eid holidays, consisting of almost 10 days. He said he was expecting encouraging response from the public in next few days. However, he avoided to comment whether the government was extending last date of the scheme or not.
It may be noted that Rs1200 billion assets were declared under the amnesty scheme of PML-N government. It is generally presumed that the PTI government would not be able to touch this figure. However, one major difference is that many beneficiaries of the PML-N scheme had also covered their future incomes, which took the final number to Rs1200 billion. In case of the present scheme, the interested ones are required to declare their actual assets.
He said being the focal person of the scheme at the CRTO Lahore, he has written to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to bring the income support levy in the ambit of the scheme. The LSE members urged the FBR team to include stock market shares in the scheme as well besides the cash deposit and property. He said the Benamidar Properties Act has been passed by the Parliament and it would be enforced by 1st of July 2019.
About the overseas Pakistanis, he said those residing in Pakistan for a period of 182 days would have to declare their assets in Pakistan. He assured the LSE members to refer their issues to the Board soon after the meeting.