The government is fast moving towards documentation of economy and in this connection before taking harsh measures; the business community is being offered last opportunity to regularize their undeclared assets before June 30, 2019.
Addressing an awareness session on "Asset Declaration Scheme-2019" in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) here on Monday, Khalid Malik Commissioner Inland Revenue Lyallpur Zone said that the information collected through this scheme would be kept secret and no department could question the details of regularised undeclared assets.
Muhammad Zeeshan Deputy Commissioner RTO gave a detailed presentation on Amnesty Scheme and told that national and foreign assets could be regularised before June 30th. He told that government of Pakistan has signed a number of agreements with different countries for the exchange of information and now it is practically impossible for anybody to conceal its offshore properties. "Public limited companies and public office holders could not avail from this scheme", he said and added that clarified that this scheme will be applicable on immovable properties while gold, prize bonds and other movable assets would not fall within this amnesty scheme. He said the government has fixed minimum rate for regularisation of undeclared assets from 1.5 percent to 6 percent and hence this scheme is beneficial for the business community as they could easily regularize their local as well as foreign assets by paying very nominal fee.
Earlier, in his address of welcome Mian Tanveer Ahmed Acting President FCCI explained the basic objectives to introduce tax amnesty scheme and told that it is an important step towards the documentation of economy. "This scheme will also help in expanding tax net which is dismally poor in Pakistan", he told and added that government should facilitate business community instead of creating problems for them.
He said that pending refund claims should be paid without any further delay and decision to levy 17 percent sales tax should also be eliminated as it will have negative impact on our exports which will suffer due to increase in cost of doing business.
He demanded that zero rate facility for five major export sectors should continue at least for another period of five years. He also demanded facility of one window in local RTO Office and said that committee should also be constituted so that tax related issues could be resolved with mutual consultation. A question-answer session was also held in which Sheikh Ashfaq Ahmed, Rana Sikandar Azam, Chaudhry Asghar, Ayub Sabir and other members participated. Jawad Anwar Commissioner Corporate Zone RTO was also present during this meeting.