KARACHI: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Friday said that the Universal Self Assessment Scheme (USAS) has been reintroduced. This scheme will facilitate taxpayers in declaring income and assets.
He was addressing the members of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), during his visit to Karachi.
The finance minister added that the government withdrew the USAS two years ago. Yet, it was restored in the recent budget. The USAS allows a person to declare voluntarily and assets and the declaration will be deemed accepted once it is submitted. However, identification of major discrepancies in the returns the related tax provisions of the law will be invoked.
Shaukat Tarin further added that broadening the tax base is the priority of the government. In this regard notices will be issued to the potential taxpayers and audits will be done through a third party.
The finance minister said that for the broadening of the tax base the government had gathered data from various sources. The data have been obtained from electricity bills, bank deposits, and other transactions.
The Finance Minister said: “Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been kept out of tax audit and it will be done through the third party.”
He further said, “Notices will be sent to persons on the identification of discrepancies and on non-compliance major action of arrest may be taken.”
The finance minister said, “The FBR has a record of 7.2 million transactions. Another 15 million details are in NADRA.” He added that notices are being issued. The notices have been issued after 90 percent surety that the person has concealed income or assets.
He assured the OICCI that all measures would be taken to facilitate traders and investors.
The finance minister said that the making of the budget was not easy but we had taken decisions despite IMF constraints. He said that efforts had been made to steer the economy in the right direction. “Policies were introduced to stabilize the economy,” he added.
We started a regular meeting with the stakeholders on the policies. The prime minister is personally hearing the business community regarding their problems.
Talking about retailers, he said that a very low revenue generation was witnessed from this sector. He said that POS was implemented and customers were encouraged to report the issuance of receipts from POS machines. In this regard, customers will be given prizes, the finance minister said.
Shaukat Tarin said he met officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) earlier and discussed workers’ remittances and Roshan Digital Account (RDA). He said that new products were launched to attract remittances.
Discussing the current account balance, he said that the government would try to keep the deficit under control. The finance minister said that in order to contain the deficit the government will focus on enhancing exports.
The finance minister also talked about power, agriculture and inflation in detail.
