Non-filers restricted from buying property, heavy cars

ISLAMABAD: The federal government announced restrictions on the purchase of property and vehicles by non-filers while exempting the overseas Pakistanis from acquisition of inherited property and purchasing vehicles with engine capacity less than 200CC.

Winding up debate on the supplementary budget passed by the National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday, Finance Minister Asad Umar said the government had decided to withdraw the relaxation given to the non-filers to purchase property and vehicles as announced in his budget speech earlier. The minister said a fine would be imposed if a property or vehicle is purchased by a non-filer in violation of Clause 4 (a) and 4 (b) of Section 227C.

The House, while passing the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, 2018, accepted the amendments moved by the finance minister and rejected the opposition’s amendments. The revised Finance Bill was passed by 158 to 120 votes. The Finance Bill was put to voting on the demand of the opposition, which observed that voice of ‘No’ was louder than ‘Yes’. According to an amendment in Clause 3 of the Finance Supplementary Bill, the government decided to reduce the regulatory duty from 30% to 10% on imports and local supplies of imported LPG.

According to an insertion in Clause 4 of the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, where any manufacturer of a motor vehicle accepts or processes any application for booking or purchase of a locally manufactured vehicle from a non-filer, a fine of 5% of the value of vehicle would be paid by such person. And in case of imported vehicle, the fine would be 3% of the total value of the vehicle. In case of immovable property, the non-filer would have to pay penalty of 3% of value of the property to the authority responsible for registering, recording or attesting the transfer of such property.

While winding up the debate on the supplementary budget, the finance minister opposed the amendments of the opposition members and the recommendations from the Senate that the supplementary budget should not have a retrospective effect from July 01, 2018. “The Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill has retrospective effect as the fiscal year starts from July 01,” he said.

Asad Umar told the House that the government has decided to go after non-filers and in this connection, a campaign was started from Tuesday with notices to 169 big non-filers, adding the number would reach in thousands in coming days. He appealed to the non-filers to start filing tax returns as the date for this purpose was extended. He said the prime minister has already promised that tax received from taxpayers would be spent on people. “If you are not still ready to pay taxes, the incumbent government is not so weak that it cannot get the money recovered from you,” the finance minister warned the non-filers.

He said as far the bank accounts information is concerned, the banks have been directed to furnish information about withholding tax, which they had collected from transactions. The minister while talking about Rs6 to Rs7 billion subsidy on fertilizers said the subsidy would be given in case of import of urea and for plants being run on LNG. About the attitude of opposition in the National Assembly, the minister said those critical of PTI government’s commitment to run the country on the pattern of Madina, should remember that there was justice in that state and even the Caliph was accountable to the masses.

According to amendments in the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) bill, 2018 presented by the finance minister, motorcycles having engine capacity of less than 200cc, motorcycle rickshaws, auricular tractor or any other motor vehicle having engine capacity of less than 200cc, a legal heir acquiring inherited property and persons holding a national identity card for overseas Pakistanis, would be exempted from the restrictions imposed on the non-filers. However, the overseas Pakistanis would have to produce a certificate from the scheduled bank for receipt of foreign exchange remitted from outside Pakistan through normal banking channels during a period of 60 days prior to the date of registering or transferring a property or date of booking or purchase of the motor vehicle.

Taking exception to criticism of the opposition members, the finance minister questioned as to why they (opposition) criticise the PTI government for not fulfilling promises in 40 days when they could not do the same in 40 years. He pointed out that during the last one year, the circular debt has increased by Rs453 billion, which has now surged to Rs 1,200 billion. “There is deficit of Rs154 billion in gas sector and the IPPs are refusing to generate electricity,” he said. He regretted that in the past, transmission lines of electricity were not provided in the less developed and far-flung areas. “It was said that the residents of the KP and Balochistan were not given electricity because they do not pay the bills,” he said. The minister said the exemption from payment of tax for Fata and Pata would continue for five years.

Referring to criticism from Opposition Leader Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the finance minister said he was using the phrase mentioning cat because the tiger has been reduced to a cat.

He said the opposition leader was wrongly shifting all the blame of little use of the Public Sector Development Programme to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He said the ECP had imposed restrictions on announcement of new development schemes once the schedule of the general elections was announced.