Islamabad: On Friday, the federal government sailed the PKR 5.247 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2018-19 through the National Assembly (NA), according to a news source. This included the tax amnesty scheme and the Finance Bill 2018.
The budget was debated extensively before sailing through, and the tax amnesty scheme was incorporated with various amendments. In addition, measures related to the federal excise duty, sales tax, and customs duty would be implemented once the President of Pakistan would give his approval to the Finance Bill 2018.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail told the house that non tax-filers would not be able to purchase property, but that the limit for this had been increased from PKR 4 million to PKR 5 million. Non-filers would not be allowed to have dollar accounts either.
A few proposals made during the debate were added to the budget, but the overall structure remained the same as the one announced by Ismail on April 27. Ismail also remarked on the foreign exchange reserves and believed that an upsurge in exports would amend the current deficit. It was also corroborated that sources of income of overseas Pakistanis who send more than USD 0.1 million will be brought to question.
Tax relief were also announced, with token amounts being paid by taxpayers. There is also a ten percent ad hoc relief allowance for employees of the civil and armed forces, along with a ten percent increase in pensions across the board. Five bonus salaries for employees working for the Senate and National Assembly were also announced.
