FBR exempts assets from attachment

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday announced it has exempted various assets from attachment and further sale/auction for the recovery of tax from defaulters, in a bid to facilitate taxpayers amid prevailing economic lockdown.

The FBR amended Sales Tax Rules, 2006, by issuing SRO 353(I)/2020, restraining the tax officials from attaching certain movable properties of a defaulter for recovery of due taxes.

“The FBR officials may not attach assets for recovery, which included the necessary wearing apparel, cooking vessels, beds, and bedding of the defaulters, his wife and children, and such personal ornaments, as, in accordance with religious usage, cannot be parted with by any women,” the notification said.

The tax officials have further been barred from attaching assets for recovery, which included tools of artisans, and where the defaulter is an agriculturist, his implements of husbandry and such cattle and seed grain as may be necessary to enable him to earn his livelihood.

The FBR also explained the assets, which cannot be attached by the tax officials for recovery. “These will include houses and other buildings (with the materials and the sites and the land immediately appurtenant) belonging to an agriculturist and occupied him,” the FBR added.