FBR not to share tax amnesty details of beneficiaries with NA body

ISLAMABAD: Despite insistence from the opposition benches, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday refused to give details about the numbers of declarants and the amount of taxes collected from the amnesty scheme.

The FBR argued before the parliamentarians that the Board did not fix any target through this ongoing scheme to inflate its collection in the outgoing fiscal year ending on June 30, 2019. The FBR is assigned to collect revised tax collection target of Rs4,150 billion for the outgoing financial year. The FBR has also given a briefing to the cabinet on the progress made in the ongoing amnesty scheme and informed the MPs that availing of declarants was less than 1,000 and paid tax amount was not very significant. However, top FBR officials claimed that those who obtained the password for declaration of the scheme stood at more than 5,000 that only indicated their intention to avail the scheme. In order to avoid congestion of the online system, the FBR has given instructions to field formations to ask interested individuals and companies to download the forms of asset declaration scheme and then fill it online.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenues held its meeting under chairmanship of Asad Umar here at the Parliament House in which the opposition members got irked on a political statement given by Asad Umar without mentioning any name. At that PPP MNA Nafisa Shah said then the name of Aleema Khan would also be mentioned. The PML-N MNA Ayesha Ghous Pasha said this committee should not be used for political point scoring as they are already unable to contribute anything to the main proceedings of the National Assembly.

When FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi did not share the exact number of declarants and amount of taxes collected on amnesty scheme during the committee proceedings, opposition MNA Nafisa Shah from PPP and Qaiser Sheikh from PML-N stated this ongoing amnesty scheme would fail to yield the desired results. The FBR chairman ruled out possibility to grant extension in the deadline for the amnesty scheme, saying it would not be extended at all keeping in view requirements of international lenders. He did not explain it openly but Asad Umar stated that the IMF’s Executive Board is going to approve the bailout package on July 3, 2019, so the FBR could not grant extension in amnesty scheme. “The ongoing amnesty scheme will provide transition for implementation of the Benami act, so there is need to give last chance to those possessing Benami accounts before making this law operational. It is estimated that 25 to 30 percent deposits are not in the name of owners. There are total 45 million accounts in the banking sector out of which only 1 to 1.2 million are registered with the taxation system of the country,” Shahbar Zaidi informed the NA panel. He said the banks shared the data of account holders with the FBR and it happened for the first time in the country’s history without creating any harassment. He said Nadra’s Facilitation Centers would share data of land transactions on the basis of CNICs, and all the information in possession of different government agencies could be obtained so the people could avail this last chance.