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“The Federal government on Sunday proposed a Rs36 billion mini-budget and eased restrictions on major purchases by individuals with insufficient declared assets.” Shahbaz Rana of Express Tribune Reported.
The revised criteria aim to address public concerns about the negative impact of the earlier blanket ban on economic activity by ineligible persons.
With the introduction of a mini-budget before the planned approval of 2025-26 budget on Thursday, the government has imposed total new taxes worth Rs462 billion.
New taxes have been imposed on one-day old chicken and rates have been increased on companies’ investment in mutual funds and earnings from investment in government debt.
The government has also agreed to relax the criteria for banning the economic transactions such as buying a home, plot, car, investing in securities and maintaining a bank account by those whose declared assets do not support these purchases. It had proposed to ban all such transactions if the declared assets do not support these purchases.
The government has now proposed that ineligibility criteria will not apply if the value of a car is up to Rs7 million. The ineligibility criterion would apply on purchase of over Rs100 million commercial plot and over Rs50 million residential property.
The ineligibility condition will be applicable if the cash in the bank account is more than Rs100 million per annum in all bank accounts of one individual. The ineligibility condition on stock market investment would be applicable, if the cumulative investment in a year is more than Rs50 million.
These limits have been set on the assumption that Pakistan’s 5% richest evade taxes and the rest of the 95% do not have economic muscles for making major investments.
The new tax measures were tabled before the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, which endorsed the government’s proposals. PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar chaired the committee meeting.
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