ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has announced specific rates of Federal Excise Duty on travel by air of passengers within the territorial jurisdiction of Pakistan.

The amendments were introduced through the Finance Act 2014 which was approved here on Saturday.

As per decision, the rate of federal excise duty (FED) will be Rs2,500 per passenger on long routes. The long routes mean journey exceeding 500kms.

The rate of duty will be Rs1,250 on short routes, which means remaining journeys other than socio-economic routes.

The rate of duty for socio-economic routes will be Rs500. The socio-economic journey means the routes along the Balochistan coastal belt.

The routes, which are exempt from duty, will remain the same.

On international routes, the rate of FED will be Rs5,000 per passenger on economy and economy plus and Rs10,000 on club, business and first class.

Through another amendment, every company not quoted on stock exchange issuing bonus shares to the shareholders of the company shall deposit tax within 15 days of the closure of the books at the rate of the five per cent of the value of the bonus shares.

If a shareholder neither makes payment of tax to the company nor collects its bonus shares, within three months of the date of issuance of bonus share, the company may proceed to dispose of its bonus shares to the extent it has paid tax on its behalf.

Through another amendment, the government has asked the non-profit organisations to submit exemption certificate for getting exemption from income tax.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2014