ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: The government plans to expand scope of its proposed amnesty scheme for rich people and provide to them exemption from tax audit for a maximum of 10 years in order to bring them on tax rolls of the country.

The facility would be available to the affluent people who neither had valid national tax numbers (NTNs) nor had filed income tax returns on their businesses by Nov 28, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the incentive package, sources said.

A spokesman for the Federal Board of Revenue, Shahid Husain Asad, told Dawn on Saturday that a summary on the subject had been sent to the finance ministry for approval and “we will issue notifications regarding the scheme in the coming week”.

Under the proposed scheme, the government will exempt those who don’t have NTNs from paying additional tax, penalty on late filing of tax returns and default surcharge on payment. The scheme will be available until Feb 28.

For availing the facility, an individual doing business but not having an NTN will have to file tax returns for the past five years, with the maximum payment of Rs25,000 per year as fixed rate. Under the income tax law, the past returns can only be filed for five years.

The FBR spokesman said the returns would be filed from the year of initiation of the business and the five-year period had been mentioned just to comply with the law.

“An individual can file a single return or two for coming on the tax roll under the scheme,” he added.

Immunity from audit will be available for the tax years for which returns are filed and for an equal number of subsequent years. In case returns for the past five years are filed, the audit exemption period will span a maximum of 10 years.

The National Database and Registration Authority has identified over three million potential taxpayers, who have luxury houses or who go abroad frequently but do not figure on the tax rolls. The scheme is being launched to bring them into the tax net.

To increase tax collection and reduce the gap between the number of people having NTNs and those who regularly file tax returns, the government has decided to make them file returns for the past five years and exempt them from any penalty, additional tax and audit. Such individuals will have to pay Rs20,000 per annum.

But exemption from tax audit in the future will not be available under this scheme. The scheme targets 3.3 million NTN holders who do not file tax returns.