A senior official of the Federal Council of Taxpayers (FBR) has revealed that they have received around 1,000 tax returns under the Amnesty Scheme the previous government had been announced. The three-month-old Tax Amnesty Scheme announced in April has recently been ratified by the Supreme Court, which heard the case in Lahore's registration on Monday.

Abdul Qadir Memon, president of Pakistan's tax union, stated that not many people have yet benefited from the scheme because the majority of people are awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court on this matter. Now that the court has given his consent, he believes that more people will choose the tax Amnesty that is offered. The Supreme Court will also give the detailed order of the case soon.

About the Tax Amnesty scheme

The PML-N government announced a fiscal amnesty scheme in April, which is expected to expire at the end of June, which could give a one-off tax benefit to residents who repatriate and declare their assets.

Under the amnesty scheme:

• a 5% fine will be charged for undeclared local liquid assets,
• For non-declared foreign liquid assets a fine of 2% is levied if it is repatriated or a 5% fine if it is held abroad or in foreign currency
• for undeclared fixed assets – regardless of whether they are held locally or abroad – a 3% fine is levied.

Memon said the FBR must publish a statement that the amnesty is also applicable in recent years. However, the amnesty can not be used for assets that are not specified in the period from July 2017 to April 2018.

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The tax regime applies to assets on 10 April and would continue until 30 June.

An official of the FBR also clarified that a person can use amnesty for both local and foreign property. However, those who have given up their Pakistani nationality will not be able to use the scheme.

FBR further states that:

The tax regulator is authorized to publish some clarification about the time period and "such power is (is) only vested in the political authorities". "The FBR is not authorized to extend even the last date for the schedule."

Khalid Mahmood, president of Karachi Tax Bar Association, said that people would like to use the amnesty.

Mr. Shabbar Zaidi, who was present in the SC, says that the court gave her nod to the amnesty scheme