Ban on purchasing new vehicles for non-filers will not be withdrawn: Miftah Ismail

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail on Saturday announced that a bar on non-filers of income tax returns from purchasing motor vehicles will not be withdrawn.

“We will consider reducing the customs duty on medicines, however, we will not withdraw the curbs on non-filers of income tax returns from buying new motor vehicles,” Ismail said while speaking to traders in Karachi.

Ismail added, “The government had first barred non-filers from purchasing property that had a declared value of over Rs4 million but that was later increased to Rs5 million.”

The tax amnesty issue is under review by the honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Saqib Nisar and will be decided at his discretion, the minister added. 

The finance minister further said, “Rampant under invoicing on imports from China and UAE is causing a $6.4 billion loss to Pakistan.”

“China has not yet provided access to the online data exchange,” he added.

Last month while presenting the budget for 2018-19, the government barred non-filers from purchasing property that had a declared value of over Rs4 million and it also put curbs on them from buying new motor vehicles if their names did not feature in the active taxpayers’ list (ATL) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).