Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan has made it clear that there was no amnesty scheme under consideration for the real estate sector. "We must know about the source of difference amount between DC rates and the FBR notified rates" said Khan during Senate Standing Committee on Finance which met here Tuesday under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla and stated that this has also been conveyed to the National Assembly''s Standing Committee on Finance that wanted "either one time exemption to be given to the difference amount or should be charged a fix tax."
He said the tax authorities are not in agreement to suggestion of National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance of giving one time exemption or imposing a fix tax on the difference amount and are not introducing any amnesty scheme. Khan added that the FBR had no powers to introduce tax amnesty scheme and if government ever decides to do so, she would route through the Parliament. Chairman FBR added that some sectors have been very hard to bring into the tax net and real estate sector under valuation was one of them. The government has introduced some measures to address the issue of under valuation and sector raised objection to them.
The tax authorities, he said had serious and detailed negotiation with the stakeholders and notified rates of 21 cities after reaching a consensus with the stakeholder of these cities. However, Chairman of the committee and some members, Senator Fateh Muhammad Hassani, Mohsin Aziz and others stated that they had forewarned the tax authorities before the measures were introduced about its repercussions. "You did not listen to the committee and introduce a policy in the budget which did not work" committee chairman said "all the registries have been struck in the registrar office and no registry property documentation was taking place". He said power of attorney has become now a way of business in the real estate and asked the FBR to let the committee know about any development on the issue.
Senator Mohsin Aziz said the government has taken these measures to favour few peoples in real estate sector as was done in the 1992 Economic Reforms Act. The Chairman of the committee termed the1992 Economic Reforms Act of 1992 as economic destruction Act primarily because it was used to transfer foreign exchange from the country to abroad through resident Pakistanis. Mandviwalla said that "1992 Act approved by Sartaj Aziz gave blanket approval to Pakistan residents to transfer as much as foreign exchange they want through foreign currency accounts. An official of State Bank of Pakistan said that Act was amended in 1999. The committee decided to defer the law proposed by the Chairman to amend the Economic Reform Act for taking a briefing from him.
State Bank of Pakistan out rightly dismissed the reports of shifting any department of the regulator and stated that only few officers were decentralised. "Banking Services Corporation (BSC) was not being shifted but some partial things are being shifted to Lahore, said Deputy Governor SBP Riaz Riazuddin. Chairman of the committee stated if it was an administrative issue, then why it was taken to the SBP Board. We would like to know "what you have taken to the Board and what the Board has approved," he said. Chairman FBR also briefed the committee on the OECD and stated that Pakistan would become its member by the end of 2017 or 2018.
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