ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance is set to take up four controversial ordinances on Monday.

The government had promulgated these ordinances last month to implement the Economic Reforms Package (ERP) envisaging a “one-time” amnesty scheme to whiten undeclared assets at home and abroad, reduction in income tax rates and barring cash transactions in non-filer accounts.

The four ordinances had been introduced in the National Assembly in the form of bills on April 11 amidst protest and walkout by the opposition members who had termed the move “ill-timed” and an “insult” to parliament.

The committee headed by Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) will consider Voluntary Declaration of Domestic Assets Bill, 2018, Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Bill, 2018, Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, and Economic Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2018, in its meeting.

Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Syed Naveed Qamar and one of the most vocal PPP MNAs Dr Nafisa Shah are members of the committee, besides Asad Umar of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

All these members during their speeches in the National Assembly had rejected the ordinances and declared that they would not let the government pass them.

The ERP had been announced by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during a news conference earlier this month, stating that the focus of the new scheme was to facilitate taxpayers and expand the tax net to at least three million people from less than 1.2m in a population of 207m.

Naveed Qamar had regretted that the government had announced the amnesty scheme and reduction in the income tax just two weeks before presentation of the federal budget. He said the government had announced cut in the income tax rates, the effect of which would be borne by the next government as it would become effective from July 1 when this government would not be in the office.

Similarly, parliamentary leader of the PTI Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said his party would oppose this amnesty scheme which had been introduced for the benefit of money launderers and tax evaders, terming it “a slap on the face of honest taxpayers”.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2018