Chairman FBR Nisar Muhammad Khan has praised the reforms introduced in SECP during the last two years, especially appreciating the sincere efforts of Zafar Hijazi for turning the organisation into a strong regulatory body.
He was speaking at the farewell reception given by the SECP senior officers on the eve of his retirement in Islamabad.
He said the integration of Stock Exchanges into Pakistan Stock Exchange was a landmark achievement of SECP and so was the Companies' Bill 2016. He said the significant and comprehensive changes brought in regulations by the SECP had increased the level of transparency which was bound to positively impact the economy of the country.
He said there had been excellent co-operation between FBR and SECP during the last two years especially regarding measures with regard to the capital gain tax and two percent reduction for Sharia Compliant Companies. The proposal of SECP on REIT rentals five percent tax on disposal of immovable property of rental REITs till June 2019 was accepted. Similarly, the proposal on list Sukuk tax neutrality no bearing on any type of reduction in tax collection and the efforts are only for the promotion of Islamic Finance and creation of a level-playing field for Shariah compliant instruments was accepted. He was confident that this level of co-operation between the two organisations would continue.
The Chairman FBR said the tax growth during the last year was 25 percent and the targets of tax collection for the incoming budget would also be achieved though the tax avoidance culture prevails in the society. He said SECP and FBR would continue their consultations with regard to the proposals for the incoming budget.-PR