Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance that with the approval of new Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS), the FBR would be able to collect additional revenue of Rs 125 billion per annum.

He informed that no audit would take place of the traders who would take benefit from this scheme.

He informed that during the previous two years, the FBR had phased out numerous Statutory Regulatory Orders (SRO) worth of Rs 220 billion.

Committee Chairman Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said that the government should take all the stakeholders and political parties onboard before approval of the scheme.

Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood on the occasion informed that the audit exemption was being extended to the traders on the condition that they would be bound to increase their taxes by 25% annually.

He said the traders’ community had expressed satisfaction over the announcement of the scheme. “The scheme is not announced for any particular sector”, he said, adding that there should be national consensus on the national scheme.

He said there was a big difference between the current scheme and the schemes that had been introduced in past.

He said the government was ready to talk to the groups who were raising objection over the withholding tax on banking transactions.

Committee member Nafeesa Shah asked that why the scheme was limited to only one sector, saying that the government should also include manufacturing and services sectors in the scheme.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Murad Saeed alleged that the period of the scheme was only for three years, which showed that this scheme was designed for political gains.

He said what message was being conveyed to those who were paying their taxes regularly by facilitating the non-taxpayers.

Rasheed Godel on the occasion said if the government wanted to enhance the tax net then all sectors should be included in the scheme.