Daily Times

Parliamentary Committee on Finance Chairman Asad Umar on Thursday said that billions of dollars were in offshore accounts that were not being brought back to the country. He said extra burden was being put on the public even if the government was not willing to do so.

The former finance minister chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly that was briefed on the prices of cement, flour, sugar and local air tickets.

FBR officials informed the meeting about off shore assets of Pakistanis and said data of 152,000 accounts having $7.5 billion has been received from 28 countries. They said $4.5 billion are in 650 accounts only. Federal of Board of Revenue (FBR) officials said 60 percent of these have claimed for amnesty, adding that amnesty scheme was delayed to take action against these persons.

Asad Umar said the response to amnesty would have been good if at least 5 of these had been questioned. The committee rejected the briefing of FBR officials and summoned FBR chairman in next meeting to brief the committee about foreign accounts.

The Committee recommended that FBR would deliver a comprehensive presentation with regard to the procedures of tax returns and its flaws in its next meeting. The Committee noted the problems being faced by the real estate sector due to uncertainty about the implementation of property value with regard to DC rates, increase in FBR value and recommended the Advisor on Finance & Revenue to coordinate with provincial governments in order to address the anomalies in that regard. The Committee also directed the FBR to issue a clarification about increase in FBR’s property rates at the earliest. The Committee was of the view that single assessment mechanism should be introduced to define the property rates in the country.

The Committee deferred the agenda regarding work plan assigned by the Special Committee on Agricultural Products to uplift the agriculture development in the country and directed that Fakhar Imam or any other member of the said committee may be invited in the next meeting of the Committee.

The Committee expressed its grave concern over the unsatisfactory and incomplete presentation of FBR on the Automatic Exchange of information, data received from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Committee directed that Chairman FBR should brief the Committee in that regard in its next meeting.

The Committee unanimously recommended that Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) will be invited shortly to explain the reasons of sharp price increase in cement, flour, sugar, domestic airfare and automotive industry in the country.

While talking about the refund problems being faced by the exporters, the Committee recommended the FBR to arrange a detailed briefing about the criteria of refunds and role of newly created refund’s company in FBR. The Committee unanimously decided to appoint a four members sub-committee under the convenership of Faiz Ullah, MNA, the sub-committee comprises Raza Nasrullah, MNA Member, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, MNA as member and Ms. Nafisa Shah, MNA also as member.

The ToRs of the Sub-Committee:

“To identify the problems being confronted by the local textile sector due to zero rating on export and other taxation charges regarding exports, imports and local industries. The Sub-Committee will submit its recommendations to main Committee within thirty days”.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Raza Nasrullah, Faiz Ullah, Makhdoom Syed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Sardar Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Faheem Khan, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vanwani, Chaudhry Khalid Javed, Ali Pervaiz, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Ms. Nafisa Shah and Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar besides the senior officers of Ministry of Finance, EAD, FBR, SBP, SECP, ZTBL, Ministry of Law, Ministry of National Food Security & Research.