ISLAMABAD: The standing committee of the Senate on Finance has rejected the 200 percent increase in the levy on petroleum products and approved enhancement of 30 percent in it.
The meeting of the committee was held at Parliament House on Thursday with its chairman, Senator Farooq H Naik on chair.
Committee also approved to abolish the tax at the rate of Rs 10 per kilogram on the tobacco growers and approved the proposal of increase the tax on cigarettes. The committee expressed its concerns over the increase of levy on petroleum products from Rs 10 per liter to Rs 30, per liter and not withdrawing the tax by the government.
The committee approved to the increasing of the limit of the amount, which any citizen can bring of Rs one million from abroad under tax amnesty scheme and approved the upper limit of the said amount to 150,000 dollars so that maximum people can get benefit from it.
The finance committee of the Upper House of Parliament also opposed the proposal to increase the tax to three percent from two percent on unregistered retailers. Senator Mohsin Aziz said that some 99 percent retailers do not pay taxes, then where the manufacturers will sell their products.
The officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) apprised the committee those taxpayers who pay their tax liability regularly would be audited once after three years. Previously their audit was conducted every year. They told the meeting that the tax on stationery items and things imported for printing Holy Quran has been brought to zero.
The committee was also informed that the ripe duty on agriculture is reduced to 5 percent from 7 percent, whereas the duty on fertilizer Urea DAP is also decreased to 2 percent from 3 percent.
Meeting also approved the proposal to eliminate the tax on the machinery and items used in Karachi Shipyard. The committee forcefully opposed the super tax on the name of FATA Development. The senators said that the Operation Zarb-e–Azb has been finished in FATA and the people have returned back to their homes but the government is still getting super tax, which should be finished. The committee also gave the approval to eliminate the tax with effect from 2020 instead of 2021.
