ISLAMABAD: The government on Sunday extended the deadline for its Assets Declaration Scheme for three days — until the end of office hours on July 3 — through a presidential ordinance to help those in queues complete the process and whiten their assets.

“We are giving last opportunity so that in case some people are still in the process and facing difficulty to let them avail of the benefits,” said Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh at a press conference along with the Minister of State for Revenue, Hammad Azhar, and Federal Board of Revenue chairman Shabbar Zaidi.

Mr Shaikh said the scheme was currently in the final stage and people had been showing a lot of interest and hence the government had decided to extend the deadline.

The FBR chairman said about 85,000 people had filed their returns so far, the numbers were changing every hour and could cross 100,000. “Results are very good and changing every hour. You will have to wait for three more days,” he said while declining to reveal resultant revenues.

Authority set up to go after those failing to declare their undisclosed assets; FBR chief says 85,000 people have filed their returns so far

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), scheduled to meet in Washington on July 3, will take up Pakistan’s case for a $6 billion 39-month bailout programme. The IMF country representative in Islamabad had last week voiced opposition to the extension in the deadline of amnesty scheme.

“Technically we are not giving an extension, but helping those already in the queues to complete the process,” the FBR chief said in reply to a question. Since July 1 is a bank holiday, the people had two days until the working hours of July 3 to conclude the transaction, he added.

Simultaneously, the FBR notified the establishment of an Adjudicating Authority under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act 2017 to go after those who do not declare their undisclosed assets and properties.

Under the notification, Jamil Ahmad, a retired grade 22 officer of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), has been appointed chairperson of the authority while Mohammad Tanvir Akhtar, a retired grade 21 officer of the Inland Revenue Service, and Khaqan Murtaza, another grade 21 officer of the PAS, are its members.

The minister of state for revenue said the authority would “come into action and go after those failing to declare their undisclosed assets”.

Responding to questions, Mr Shaikh said with a smile: “The government has taken this decision on the advice of Shabbar Zaidi.”

Talking about the budget, the adviser said it was at the centre of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government’s philosophy to take all decisions and make all things transparent and not to hide facts from the nation. “The recently passed budget is a reflection of this philosophy.”

The budget, he said, was comprehensively debated in the National Assembly where about 225 members expressed their views, majority of them from the opposition benches. They also came up with cut motions and the government responded to them in an effective manner. “This is the beauty of democracy,” Mr Shaikh said.

In the same spirit, he added, the government was announcing that it was going to the IMF to send a message to the world that it was not afraid to take difficult decisions to ensure fiscal discipline and also ready to follow good advice of the development partners to revive the country’s growth prospects.

“Our focus is on generating confidence in markets and putting the reforms in proper sequence. The idea is to do all this in phases, not abruptly,” the adviser said when asked if in his view the government should have taken these hard decisions 10 months ago to have let markets absorb the shock by now.

Mr Shaikh said some people thought the Rs5.5 trillion revenue target set by the government was unrealistic, but it was based on key fundamentals and meeting the target was vital to enable the government to spend on improved infrastructure, education, better healthcare and clean water and so on.

The economic team members sidestepped questions over looming revenue shortfall of over Rs350bn during the fiscal year ending June 30, but Hammad Azhar claimed that although the previous governments had talked about merging FBR data with that of the National Database and Registration Authority for 10 years now, the PTI government had managed to do it within 10 days.

Shabbar Zaidi said people had previously “never had a good reason to think that the government has some sort of data on them regarding their taxes. Now we have integrated data that serves as a driving factor.”

The FBR chief said he would unfold the plan over the next few days about how he planned to take forward institutional and personnel reforms in the tax machinery.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2019