ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla Monday appreciated that the government has not imposed any indirect taxes on the masses in the federal budget (2022-23).

Talking to the media at the conclusion of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance meeting, Mandviwalla stated that for the first time, the committee has seen a budget without any imposition of indirect taxes. Within direct taxes, taxes have been imposed on banks, companies, and the wealthy.

He said that the relief on taxation for salaried and business individuals by increasing the threshold for taxation. This would increase the take-home salary of the lower-salaried class.

About the taxation on deemed income, he endorsed the tax on deemed income from an unutilized property above Rs25 million including luxury farmhouses and exclusive of one self-occupied house.

The government has taken the right decision to develop the open plots and check the buying and selling of files of such plots. The productive investment should be done in the open plots. There were reservations over the budgetary proposal that many housing societies are not developed or others have not obtained the requisite NOCs from the concerned departments. People have objected that the societies are not developed but the government is imposing multiple taxes on the real estate sector.

The government has committed that the taxation on deemed income would be enforced only in cases where there is possession of plots or other forms of immovable properties. The cases of immovable properties would only be taxable in cases where necessary formalities are completed after taking possession of the property, Mandviwalla added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022