Day: May 2, 2021

What is last date for redemption of Rs40,000 prize bonds

ISLAMABAD: Regulators are at odds over the last date for conversion/redemption of Rs40,000 denomination national prize bonds, which created distress amongst the prize bondholders.

A public notice was issued by the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) in February 2021, that the government had discontinued the sale of National Prize Bonds (Bearer) of Rs25,000 and Rs40,000. “The deadline for redemption/encashment of these bonds is May 31, 2021.

On the other hand, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) through its CMD Circular No. 07 dated December 08, 2020, stated: “the finance division, the government of Pakistan has extended the last date for encashment/replacement / conversion of Rs40,000 denomination National Prize Bonds (Bearer) till December 30, 2021, vide their Notification No. F.16(3)GS-1/2014-1603 dated November 26, 2020.”

The finance division issued notification for withdrawal of Rs25,000 denomination national prize bonds from circulation in December 2020.

Another SBP CMD Circular No. 08 dated December 10, 2020, stated: “National Prize Bonds of Rs25,000 denomination shall not be sold with immediate effect and will not be encashed/redeemed after May 31, 2021.”

The public notice issued by the National Savings warned the holders who have not encashed their bonds so far, to redeem/encash Rs25,000 and Rs40,000 prize bonds before the deadline of May 31, 2021, using the following options:

— Replace with Rs25,000 & Rs40,000 Premium prize bonds (registered)

— replace with special saving certificates (SSC) / Defence Saving Certificate (DSC)

— Encashment through Bank Account

“After the deadline no such bonds will be redeemed/encashed,” it said.

Sale of Prize Bonds Rs7,500, Rs15,000 stopped forthwith

May 2, 2021
Govt. offices given procedure for closure of commercial bank accounts

ISLAMABAD: The finance division has issued procedure for government offices to close their accounts with commercial banks and transfer of all available funds to treasury single account (TSA).

According to official documents made available on Sunday, the finance division said that as per the Cash Management and TSA Rules 2020, the government offices are neither allowed to undertake any cash operation outside the TSA nor obliged to open, operate or maintain a bank account in any commercial bank.

They can only operate through the principal government account i.e Central Account No.1 (Non Food) maintained with State Bank of Pakistan for deposit and withdrawal of all public moneys.

However, in contravention of the constitutional and legal provisions as mentioned in clause-1 above and the provisions of Cash Management and ‘NA Rules 2020, the Government Offices are maintaining a large number of commercial bank accounts purportedly to operate various funds, deposits, reserve funds etc, which are otherwise legally required to be maintained in the Public Account/Central Account No.1 (Non food).

Resultantly, considerable amount of public money has been parked in the commercial bank accounts, hence held outside the TSA system.

Therefore, under the Cash Management and TSA Rules 2020, they have been required to close all the bank accounts and transfer the public money held outside the TSA system, to the Central Account No.1 (Non food).

The prime objective of devising this procedure is to facilitate the Government Offices in closure of the commercial bank accounts, transfer of all the available balances to the Public Account/Central Account No.1 (Non food) and undertake further public account transactions through the Government Central Account No.1 (Non food).

It has therefore been found expedient to prescribe a dedicated and hassle free procedure for withdrawal of funds from the Public Account through non-lapsable special assignment account, as the existing Assail assignment account procedure is for withdrawal of funds from the Federal Consolidated Fund only.

Moreover, in order to ensure uniformity in fiscal operations, the Personal Ledger Accounts (PLAs), Special Drawing Accounts (SDAs) and Revolving Fund Accounts (Local Currency) shall be discontinued forthwith as already approved by the Finance Division.

May 2, 2021
Around 2.9 million returns filed for Tax Year 2020 till May 01

ISLAMABAD – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) announced on Saturday that the number of returns filedfor the tax year 2020 has surged to around 2.9 million as of May 01, 2021, marking a substantial growth of 12 percent compared to the same period last year.
(more…)

May 2, 2021
FBR fears coronavirus spread to affect revenue collection in last two months

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has feared that fast spread of coronavirus in the third wave may affect the efforts of revenue collection during the last two months.

The FBR in a statement on Saturday said that the revenue collection during the last days of April was slowed down because of measures taken by the government to stop spread of coronavirus.

The FBR feared that spread of coronavirus may affect the revenue collection efforts in the last two months of the current fiscal year.

The FBR issued revenue collection figures that showed it achieved a 14 percent growth in net revenue collection for the period July – April 2020/2021.

However, the revenue body is still facing challenging task to generate over Rs900 billion to achieve revised downward annual target of Rs4,690 billion.

The FBR has been assigned Rs4.96 trillion revenue collection target for the fiscal year 2020/2021. However, after consultations the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had revised downward the revenue collection target to Rs4.691 trillion for the ongoing fiscal year.

As per the provisional collection, the FBR collected Rs3,780 billion during July – April 2020/2021 as compared with Rs3,320 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year, showing a increase of 14 percent.

However, the collection was higher than Rs3,637 billion – the assign collection target for the period under review.

The FBR said that it had collected record revenue in April 2021. The FBR collected Rs384 billion in April 2021, which was 57 percent higher when compared with Rs240 billion in the same month of the last year.

The gross revenue collection of the FBR was Rs3,976 billion during first 10 months of the current fiscal year as compared with Rs3,438 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The issuance of refunds grew by 65 percent during first 10 months of the current fiscal year. The FBR issued refunds worth Rs195 billion during July – April 2020/2021 as compared with Rs118 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

May 2, 2021