Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs 20.5 billion super tax from banking, companies and individuals until February 8.

Daily Times learnt that super tax was introduced through the Finance Act, 2015 whereby 4% of super tax is payable by banking companies and 3% by other companies if the income of the company is Rs 500 million or more. Initially, the tax was payable only for tax year 2015 and 2016, afterwards it has been extended for another year.

The government wants this money for the rehabilitation of temporarily displace persons (TDPs) of Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The tax department collected Rs 14.5 billion super tax in the last fiscal year 2015-16. FBR had estimated to collect Rs 24 billion during 2015-16 but it could not collect the super tax due to litigation issues.

Due to low tax ratio in the last fiscal year, the government had decided to continue the super tax on affluent and rich individuals, association of persons and companies earning income above Rs 500 million to rehabilitate the TDPs.

The government had kept Rs 100 billion in the budget for the rehabilitation of TDPs and security enhancement in the ongoing fiscal year and government has released Rs 49,241 million under a special federal development programme for temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) and security enhancement during the first seven months (July-January 17) of the present fiscal year, according to the official documents of the Planning Development and Reforms Ministry.