Islamabad:
Employees paid 21% more income tax during the first two months of this financial year, contributing to 85 billion rupees, showing that the nominal reduction in budget rates was insufficient to facilitate their financial charge.
Compared to 70 billion rupees of income tax payments in July-August for the last financial year, their contributions increased to approximately 85 billion rupees this year, government sources told The Express PK Press Club. They paid around 15 billion rupees, 21% more, although the government has nominally reduced their tax rates on this year’s budget. The Minister of Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb acknowledged that the relief was minimal due to almost no tax space available.
The 21% increase in income tax payments was beyond an already higher basis compared to last year when salaried class contributions have jumped more than half due to the abnormal increase in their rates. Record contributions from people, who pay income tax on raw wages without having luxury to adjust expenses, have considerably reduced wages to take away a large segment of the company.
During the last financial year, employees paid 555 billion income tax, 51% or 188 billion more rupees than the previous year. In the budget, the government has marginally reduced the tax burden of people earning up to 3.2 million rupees per year, claiming that this would grant them 56 billion rupees. But compared to real contributions, this nominal relief was like a drop in the bucket.
Details have shown that non -corporate sector employees paid 41.5 billion income tax in the last financial year, up 8.5 billion rupees or 26%. Employees in the business sector paid 20 billion rupees, also more than 5.2 billion rupees or 26%. The spokesperson for the Federal Board of Return (FBR), Dr. Najeeb Memon, did not answer a question concerning the growing load of employees despite a nominal reduction in their prices.
Employees of provincial governments paid nearly 10.5 billion tax rupees, compared to 626 million rupees or 6%. Federal government employees paid 7.6 billion rupees, more than 552 million rupees or 8%, according to provisional figures compiled by the FBR for July-August.
The new government tax on rich retirees has not generated higher income, the results showed. In the budget, the government has imposed income tax imposed on pensions assessed on more than 10 million rupees per year. However, the FBR has collected only 180 million rupees in two months, which indicates that the annual collections could be little more than 1 billion rupees, the sources said.
Parliamentary committees are also currently investigating the advantages of the benefits and salaries of managers of the Pakistan (SECP). The Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) had raised initial objections on an abnormal increase in the salaries of the SECP and the President commissioners, which the SECP board of directors approved on the recommendation of the management.
The senatorial committee on the permanence of finance discussed this week from the question in detail and has opposed wages to a commissioner against 17 chiefs. Senator Anusha Rahman of the Pakistani-Nawaz Muslim League criticized 10% of the total salary as a house rental (10% of 10% as a public service allelocation to a commissioner. She also opposed club members.
This week, the AGP presented the details of the audit objections in the Standing Committee, which showed that a commissioner reached 1.9 million rupees per year due to the payments of the security guard. Unlike this, there were unpaid daily bets working in the government which did not even receive the minimum monthly salary, according to the acts of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Finance.
Rahman presented a bill on private members in the Senate to withdraw the powers of the SECP board of directors in order to determine the wages of the management. It plans to move a similar bill to strip the board of directors of this powers of the Pakistan State Bank.
Although the tax contributions of the salaried class are constantly increasing, the government has failed to collect the taxes due to merchants. Several application measures have already been reversed, including the most important which was to prohibit economic transactions by non -eligible persons. This initiative was made ineffective after the government exempted most of the transactions from the jurisdiction of the new law and accepted cash deposits in banks equal to digital transactions.
During the period, the government also increased the tax burden of the real estate sector by increasing rates for non-sequences and introducing a new category of late declarants in the budget. This had an impact on the growth of the sector, in addition to other initiatives aimed at discouraging investment in unlikely land.
In this budget, the government has brought adjustments to the tax rate of deduction on sales and the purchase of plots. Consequently, the government has collected 28 billion rupees on sales of plots, an increase of 92% or 13.4 billion rupees. However, collection of properties was less than 13 billion, down RS2 or 12%.
