ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Monday announced extension of date for the Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS) up to March 15, 2016 to give more opportunities and relief to traders for filing of their returns under the scheme.
Announcement to this effect was made by the minister at a press briefing here after negotiation with traders union leaders who requested the government to give them more time to convince the traders to benefit from the scheme.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Nisar Muhammad Khan, President All Pakistan Anjman Tajiran Khawaja Shafique, and Chairman Traders Association Naim Mir and Ajmal Baloch were also present on the occasion.
The minister said that the date for filing returns was also being extended for 15 days. However, the withholding tax of 0.3 percent for non filers on banking transaction was being raised to 0.4 percent from March 1, the minister added.
He said after the announcement of the scheme, so far around 2,500 tax filers had filed their returns and took benefit from the scheme while Rs220 million had been collected under the scheme. Although, this figure is not up to the target but hoped that gradually the figures would increase and maximum number of traders would take benefit from the scheme.
Ishaq Dar said that the government had tried its level best to make reforms in the FBR in order to make it a taxpayer friendly organisation so that the maximum number of taxpayers would come under the tax net without any hindrance. To a question, the minister said that this scheme was approved through parliament as per demand of the opposition parties.
This scheme was initiated by taking all the stakeholders, including parliamentarians belonging to different political parties with consensus, he remarked. He informed that the government had also collected withholding tax of Rs13.2 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
Ishaq Dar assured the taxpayers that their refund claims would be cleared by March 15. To another question, the minister said that nobody is exempted from the tax audit and all taxpayers whose names came in the draw would be served notices irrespective of any political affiliation.
Even if my name appears in the computerized draw for audit, I would be available for my audit, he added.Replying to yet another question on holding of the national census, Dar said that the process of census had been delayed due to the fact that the personnel of armed forces were engaged in the Operation Zarb-e-Azb and as soon as the availability of the required human resource for conducting the national census was cleared, the government would launch it.
Dar said that the Pakistan Airlines Limited (PAL) had been registered as a company with the authorised capital of Rs100 billion. He said the government would make it clear within a week whether this company was going to become a subsidiary of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) or an independent entity.
He said the government had spent only Rs10,000 on this company as registration fees while no other expenses had been made. Khawaja Shafique welcomed the government for meeting their demands for giving them more time to convince the traders to take benefit from the scheme. Naim Mir said that every Pakistani should pay his or her due taxes for the socio economic prosperity of the country.