Rs 77 billion black money turned white under amnesty scheme

[Naveed Yaseen]

FBR collects Rs1.54bn under amnesty scheme

Friday, January 02, 2009
By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Some 10,828 people declared Rs77 billion worth of assets in response to a tax amnesty scheme for whitening black money by paying 2 per cent tax.

Under the scheme, the Federal Board of Revenue netted Rs1.54 billion till December 31, 2008, the FBR announced here on Thursday.

Most of the assets were declared in Lahore as the Large Taxpayer Unit and Regional Taxpayer Office there dealt with 4,117 cases under which the tax paid totalled Rs788 million.

“We will take strong action under the law against those who did not avail of this opportunity by declaring their assets,” FBR Chairman Ahmed Waqar said in an exclusive talk with The News here on Thursday. He said the FBR would launch action against those who did not declare their assets and it could not be termed ‘harassment’ on the part of tax authorities.

“The law of land gives us authority to act against non-filers,” he added. He said on Thursday was a bank holiday so the FBR would come up with exact figures of declared assets on Friday as there are reports that a number of taxpayers availed this opportunity on the last date i.e. December 31, 2008.

According to the FBR, the board has collected Rs1.54 billion through the tax investment scheme announced in July this year. According to details, some 10,828 cases seeking to benefit from the scheme were received by FBR until December 31, 2008, the last day of the scheme, and were settled after netting Rs1,542 million as tax equaling two per cent of the fair market value of their assets. The scheme was run by the 16 regional tax offices and large tax payers units of the FBR and received a record 4,114 cases from the RTO Lahore followed by 1,861 cases received in RTO Karachi.

The break-up of the collection shows that an individual in the jurisdiction of Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi paid Rs25 million by availing this Tax Amnesty Scheme. Regional Taxpayers Office (RTO) Karachi received 1,861 cases under which Rs288 million tax was deposited into the national kitty.

There is only one case in jurisdiction of LTU, Islamabad in which the taxpayer paid Rs0.4 million tax. RTO Rawalpindi received 979 cases with paid tax of Rs86 million while RTO Islamabad dealt 9 cases and paid Rs6 million into the national kitty. The RTO Multan received 101 cases and paid tax stood at Rs15 million, RTO Faisalabad dealt with 925 cases with paid tax of Rs93 million, RTO Peshawar got 246 cases with paid tax of Rs43 million and RTO Sialkot dealt with 522 cases with paid tax of Rs47 million.

The RTO Hyderabad received 868 cases for declaring assets with paid taxes of Rs44 million; RTO Quetta 48 cases with paid taxes of Rs12 million; RTO Gujranwala 572 cases with paid taxes of Rs65 million; RTO Sukkar 495 cases with paid taxes of Rs23 million and RTO Abbottabad 83 cases with paid taxes of Rs7 million.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=154980

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LAHORE: Black money worth Rs 77 billion was turned into white by 10,828 people under the Tax Amnesty Scheme introduced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), a private TV channel reported on Thursday. A citizen from Karachi legalised the highest amount of illegal assets, the channel reported.An FBR spokesman said Rs 1.542 billion were deposited in the national exchequer under the scheme. daily times monitor

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg1_11