FBR announces three amnesty schemes

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Saturday announced three amnesty schemes for business community, covering remission of default surcharge/penalties on payment of principal amount of sales tax or federal excise duty, waiver of penalties/surcharge on payment of outstanding principal amount of custom duty, and exemption of penalty/default surcharge on deposit of advance withholding tax by June 30, 2011.
The FBR issued three notifications--SRO 647 (I)/2011, SRO 648 (I)/2011 and SRO 646 (I)/2011--here on Saturday for providing tax incentives to the taxpayers for depositing the outstanding dues. Under the tax incentive package for withholding agents, the FBR vide SRO 647(1)/2011 has also notified that Federal Government shall exempt penalty and default surcharge in cases where the withholding agents have not deducted advance withholding tax as required under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 or where the withholding agents have deducted or withheld income tax but not deposited the tax deducted or withheld amount within the due dates as prescribed, if the due amount of tax is deposited in the government treasury from June 25 to June 30, 2011.
However, this notification shall not entitle any person to claim or take refund of any amount of penalty or surcharge already paid by or recovered from him before the issuance of this notification. Moreover, in cases where refund becomes due in consequence of a decision of judgement at any later stage, the income tax deposited under this notification shall be refunded.
Through SRO 648(1)/2011 of sales tax and federal excise dated 25-06-201, the FBR has exempted whole of the amount of default surcharge and penalties payable by a person against whom an amount of sales tax or federal excise duty is outstanding on account of any audit observation, audit report, show cause notice or any adjudication order, or who has failed to pay any amount of sales tax or federal excise duty or claimed inadmissible input tax credit, adjustment, refund, drawback or rebate due to any reason, if the outstanding principal amount of sales tax or federal excise duty is paid from June 25 to June 30, 2011. Benefit of this notification shall not be made available in cases of fraudulent refunds or drawback and other tax frauds.
According to SRO 646(1)/2011 of Customs dated 25-06-2011, the FBR shall remit whole amount of penalties and surcharge payable by a person against whom an amount of customs duty is outstanding on account of any audit observation, audit report, demand notice or any adjudication order or who has failed to pay any amount of customs duty claimed, inadmissible refund or drawback of custom duty due to any reason, if the outstanding principal amount of custom duty is paid by from June 25 to June 30, 2011. However, this will not entitle any person to claim or take refund of any amount of penalty or surcharge already paid or recovered from him before the issuance of this notification. Moreover, in cases where refund becomes due in consequence of a decision or judgment at a later stage, the customs duty deposited under this notification shall be refunded, the FBR added.