LAHORE: In line with the federal government, the Punjab government has also shifted token tax regime from engine capacity to invoice base value in order to collect more tax from high value vehicles keeping in view the great variation in prices of various make/model vehicles with same engine capacity.

Provincial Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman announced while presenting Punjab Finance Bill in the provincial assembly on Thursday.

He said the excise and taxation department had also intended to impose life time token tax on subsequent purchasers for 10 years with 10 percent depreciation in tax rate for each financial year after registration in order to mobilize the revenue as subsequent owner does not pay token tax.

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According to him, the Mines and Minerals department has proposed to amend the excise duty on minerals (Labour Welfare) Act, 1967 (VIII of 1967).

Consequent to the 18th amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, the subject of ‘Welfare of Labour’ was devolved to the provinces.

The cess duty imposed for promoting the welfare of labour employed in the mining industry ranging from Rs1 to Rs5 per ton was fixed during 1979 and after 45 years, the expenditure on welfare projects has increased to 500 percent. To expand the coverage of welfare facilities and fill the deficit gap in needs and available monetary resources by the mines & minerals department, the enhancement in the rate of excise duty (Mines Labour Welfare Cess) ranging from Rs30 to Rs50 per ton has been proposed.

He said the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012 was also being amended to end the litigation being faced by the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) in respect of the adversely impacting the provincial revenues.

He said the Board of Revenue (BoR) had proposed to amend the Court Fees Act, 1870, for the enhancement of fees since such fees have not been revised for a considerable time.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024