ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Thursday said additional taxes to the tune of Rs30 billion would be finalised and unveiled soon as the Board was working on it as per the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in this regard.

A special meeting of the ECC, in order to rescue PSO in a default like situation on Sunday, decided to impose Rs30 billion additional taxes after it was informed about the understanding with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with regard to primary balance and absence of budgetary allocation in the current fiscal year.

The ECC while considering fiscal constraints and understanding with the IMF stated that the supplementary grant provided will result in outflow beyond the numbers agreed with the IMF. The meeting approved Rs30 billion as supplementary grant and directed the FBR and the Finance Division to come up with a proposal within a week to impose additional taxes of this amount.

The FBR chairman was asked by the mediapersons question after the Senate Standing Committee on Finance in this regard and his response was that the FBR is working on the proposal as per the ECC’s decision to mobilize Rs30 billion tax. He said that hopefully the proposal would be firmed up soon.

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Responding to questions about fixed tax on electricity bills of traders, he said that, as per the understanding reached with the trader, various options are being considered in this regard. He said that an understanding was reached with traders in this regard during their recent meeting with the finance minister. We are working on the mechanism and something would be finalised soon. He said the traders concern was that a fixed tax was imposed on the traders whose electricity consumption was couple of thousands.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022