Islamabad:
On Wednesday, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly adopted on Wednesday a softer version of a bill to prohibit cars purchases, investment in actions and properties beyond a certain value by non-eligible persons but linked its approval by the National Assembly with the budget.
Directed by the PPPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, the Committee ordered that the modified version of the Bill 2024 modified tax laws (amendment) be included in the 2025 financing bill. The Committee has also decided that the approval of the modified bill will be obtained from the National Assembly as well as the next budget for the financial year.
Unlike the past, when the Standing Finance Committee of the National Assembly was not authorized to discuss the finance bill, this time the Committee would go through the new tax proposals after changes in the rules.
The modified version is very different from the original bill proposed by the Federal Board of Return. He exempts a major segment from the Applicability of the Act. The definition of eligible people has been extended and the list of assets that can be used to justify the purchase has been enlarged.
The committee’s decision came to the recommendation of a subcommittee in which Usama Mela and Mna Jawif of PTI played important roles.
The government had introduced the bill on the modification of tax laws to the National Assembly to prohibit economic transactions by non -eligible persons – those who do not have enough resources equivalent to the species to buy property.
According to the proposed legal amendment, a person cannot buy property as long as the assets declared in their income declarations of last year will not be sufficient for the purchase or that the person will submit a new declaration to disclose the source of purchase of the ownership. The FBR has not yet developed a safe technological solution in real time where the buyer is required to file the declaration.
The FBR had proposed article 114C as an additional layer of declaration and the FBR always had the legal power to verify these assets, once the buyer submitted his income and his wealth each year.
There are two important changes to the permanent committee. According to a modification of article 114c proposed, the new law cannot be implemented without determining the value threshold by the federal government. The “real estate transactions carried out by common citizens and the lower and intermediate income class, in particular buyers for the first time or those who buy their main residential property, are not allocated” by new legislation.
The definition of eligible people was also extended by including assets of immediate family members to justify the purchase.
Above all, the definition of “sufficient resources” has also been enlarged by adding local and foreign currencies, the fair market value of gold, the net value achieved by shares, obligations, claims or any other equivalent assets in cash which can be prescribed “. Trocging transactions have also been authorized to adjust the value of a land against another land.
In the past, the government also made taxes to remember to encourage people to become tax declarants. But people have filed the income statements just to undertake a real estate transaction and the FBR seemed satisfied to receive only an additional tax amount instead of continuing them so as not to pay their taxes on real income.
It was also decided that even if article 114C was adopted in the budget; It would not come into force before the exemption value was notified by the federal government. The Committee also modified the clause linked to the members of the immediate family and introduced the definition of dependent children instead of using the sons and daughter terms.
Non -resident Pakistanis and listed companies will be exempt from depositing the disclosure of additional information.
Some members of the committee had in the past expressed reservations regarding the relaxation of these definitions. The committee’s decision will exclude 95% of the new amendments championship and that means that there can never be a real documentation in Pakistan, “said Mna Jawed Hanif Khan in February of this year.
ZTBL turns around
The National Assembly expressed its reservations against the government’s decision to sell the Zarai Taraqii Limited bank, although it has been returned and being the only specialized bank which serves the disadvantaged agricultural community.
The committee decided to raise the question of the privatization of the ZTBL in the National Assembly to exert pressure on the government to lower the transaction.
The ZTBL list in the privatization program has stopped the progress of the new information technology programs and we cannot even hire a person despite urgent needs, the president of ZTBL Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti informed the Standing Committee.
Being a former minister of privatization three times, I can feel that the privatization of the bank cannot occur over the next two years and that there is no justification for stopping important work at the bank, said Syed Naveed Qamar.
