Govt unveils mini-budget today

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umar is going to unveil the mini-budget in the National Assembly on Wednesday (today) afternoon. With the decision to increase import duty on 1800cc cars by 10 percent and jack up tax on import of high-end user mobile phone sets, the government is considering major relief in terms of downward adjustments in four import slabs by 1 percent as well as abolishing Regulatory Duty on 150 to 250 items through upcoming supplementary finance bill. It is proposed that the slab of 21 percent will be brought down to 20 percent, 16 percent to 15 percent, 11 percent to 10 percent and 6 percent to 5 percent through upcoming finance bill. On income tax side, the government is going to provide exemption of income tax for banking sector on provision of loan for low cost housing in the country.