ISLAMABAD: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue, (FBR) Nisar Muhammad Khan informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance that with the approval of new Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS), the FBR would be able to collet additional revenue of Rs. 125 billion per annum.
He informed that no audit would take place of the traders who would take benefit from this scheme.
He informed that during previous two years the FBR had phased out numerous Statutory Regulatory Orders (SRO) worth of Rs. 220 billion.
Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Chairman of the committee said that the government should take all the stakeholders and political parties on board before approval of the scheme.
Secretary Finance, Dr. Waqar Masood on the occasion informed that the audit exemption was being extended to the traders on the condition that they would be bound to increase their taxes by 25 percent annually.
He said the traders community had expressed satisfaction over the announcement of the scheme.
"The scheme is not announced for any particular sector", he said adding there should be national consensus on the national scheme.
He said there was a big difference between the current scheme and the schemes that had been introduced in past.
He said the government was ready to talk to the groups who were raising objection over the withholding tax on banking transactions.
Member of the committee, Nafeesa Shah asked that why the scheme was limited to only one sector saying that the government should also include manufacturing and services sectors in the scheme.
Murad Saeed alleged that the period of the scheme was only for three years which showed that this scheme was designed for political gains.
He said what message was being conveyed to those who were paying their taxes regularly by facilitating the non-tax payers.
Rasheed Godel said if the government wanted to enhance tax net then all sectors should be included in the scheme.
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