Amnesty for undisclosed foreign assets to be launched March 15: minister

KARACHI: The government has planned to introduce an amnesty for Pakistanis having undisclosed foreign assets by March 15, Rana Mohammad Afzal, Minister for State on Finance and Revenue said on Tuesday.

Addressing the function at Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA), Afzal said that the amnesty scheme had been finalised with an aim to provide an opportunity to people for bringing back their foreign assets to the country.

The minister further said that the government has planned rationalising tax rates in the upcoming budget and added that, in order to provide relief to salary persons, the government would propose enhancing the minimum threshold for charging income tax to Rs800,000 from existing Rs400,000. 

The government is also devising a plan to reduce the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 20 percent in a phased manner, he further said. 

Afzal added that the government was focusing on increasing foreign exchange reserves as $3 billion is scheduled to be paid to the IMF. 

The minister for state on finance and revenue said that the foreign exchange reserves have declined due to a significant rise in imports. and added that the import bill during the last fiscal year was $55 billion. The bill, however, included imports of power generating and other machinery.

Commenting on payment of sales tax refunds, he said the government had set a deadline of February 15 for releasing all outstanding refunds but due to engagements of the finance ministry related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) the refund payments were delayed.

“There is no change in policy for sales tax refunds,” he said and added that all those refund claims where Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) had been issued would be paid instantly. He estimated that around Rs160 billion refunds were payable.

Javed Balwani, Chairman, Pakistan Apparel Forum apprised the minister that exporters were facing immense problems due to a high cost of production and stuck up sales tax refunds.

Bilwani also said that exporters were forced to obtain interest based loans due to liquidity issues.

The chairman of Pakistan Apparel Forum also complained regarding the attitude of customs authorities saying that those were focusing on imports rather giving facilitation to exports, which are a major source of bringing foreign exchange into the country.

Bilwani suggested that reducing the cost of production could help in improving export numbers.