ISLAMABAD:The government has decided to promulgate an ordinance to offer a third tax amnesty scheme in as many years — this time to industrialists — by offering them to whiten their black money at 5% rate by investing in the manufacturing sector.
The amnesty is part of an industrial package that also includes tax benefits for three years on acquisition of sick industrial units, besides allowing overseas Pakistanis to invest in the country’s manufacturing sector and freely take back the profits earned and the capital investment.
The decision to give another tax amnesty scheme may put the just revived $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme at stake, as the global lender bars giving any tax amnesty scheme. Sources said that the government had not taken the IMF into confidence.
The finance ministry circulated a summary among the federal cabinet members on Monday for their approval of the tax amnesty scheme through the Income Tax Amendment Ordinance 2022. Prime Minister Imran Khan will formally launch his third amnesty scheme in Lahore on Tuesday (today).
The official documents showed that the scheme had been prepared in haste and due to paucity of time, the approval of the Cabinet Committee for Legislative Cases (CCLC) had also not been obtained.
The prime minister dispensed with the condition of submission of a summary to the CCLC and approved the submission of the summary to the Cabinet through circulation, according to the summary.
The government had decided to waive 24% tax rate and another 29% penalties by allowing the people to invest their black money, giving 49% bonanza to the industrialists. An industrialist could avail the tax amnesty scheme by investing Rs50 million.
