The federal cabinet in a special meeting presided by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday (April 17) once again deferred the approval of the much-awaited tax amnesty scheme because some of its provisions require “further fine-tuning”, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced.
Chaudhry tweeted that the cabinet today deliberated on all aspects of the proposed Assets Declaration and Amnesty Scheme, 2019, and that all options “came under threadbare discussion”.
The Cabinet delibrated on all aspects of proposed asset Scheme,all opttions came under threadbare discussion, it is decided that some provisions need further fine tuning, matter is pended for next Cabinet meeting.
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 17, 2019
In first meeting, after taking into consideration negative and positive aspects, the federal ministers expressed their reservations and sought further clarification regarding Amnesty scheme. In the two-hour long session, presided by Prime Minister Imran Khan, cabinet also discussed money laundering and corruption issues, including the amnesty scheme.
The scheme will cover declaration of undisclosed assets, benami assets, sales and incomes on or before June 30, 2018 with tax rates ranging from 5-10pc with certain exceptions but assets would be valued at prescribed rates. “Foreign assets will be converted into money and remitted to rupee accounts in Pakistani banks or deposited into declarants’ own foreign currency bank accounts in Pakistan”. In the previous schemes, the foreign assets were not required to be transferred to Pakistan.
