ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) on Friday passed the Finance Bill for the fiscal year 2018-19.
NA successfully won legal support for its budgetary proposals for the upcoming year. The lower house accepted the Rs 5.2 trillion amended bill during its session.
Previously, the house had debated on the budget, bringing forth recommendations for the ruling government to incorporate in the bill. The Senate had also recommended changes which were more or less added in the bill. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail had announced on April 27 that the basic structure of the bill would remain the same; however the recommendations will be incorporated after review.
The budget for the fiscal year of 2018-19 aims to provide incentives and relief for various industries including the agricultural sector.
Finance Minister had added that those holding dollar accounts must be tax-filers as non-tax filers will not be allowed to maintain dollar accounts. Ismail added that if receivable amount of remittances exceeded above Rs 10 million by the Federal Revenue Board (FBR) that an inquiry will be launched against it.
One of the clauses of the bill suggested that there was no restriction on overseas Pakistani nationals for sending remittances, however those sending more than USD 0.1 million will be questioned about their sources of income.
Furthermore, the issue of tax exemption for welfare organizations was highlighted by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Previously the opposition parties had rejected Prime Minister’s (PM) tax amnesty scheme announced in the budget 2018-19. NA opposition leader Khursheed Shah criticized the scheme stating it a tactic of making the rich richer and poor poorer. He also raised questions on why the taxpayers weren’t given any relief.
Other parties had registered protest against the presentation of the budget by the ruling government stating that it had no right to announce the bill for the whole fiscal year of 2018-19.
