Amnesty scheme crosses 1 lac asset declarations

ISLAMABAD: As the deadline of the amnesty scheme ends. Around 110, 000 people filed for tax returns, with a huge from the non-filers of income tax.

The deadline for the latest assets declaration scheme was extended to July 3^rd to facilitate the non-files who had not filed for tax returns.

The asset declaration scheme saw three major outcomes, first, people from small cities availed the scheme, mostly those who did not exist on the tax roll. 100, 000 new tax returns were added in the last 10 days. As a result, over two million tax returns were filed, making it the highest total ever in the country’s history.

“Over 90,000 non-filers availed the amnesty scheme,” a senior tax officer informed.

Secondly, the scheme was availed by the people hailing from small cities like Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Abbottabad, Sialkot, etc.

The last tax amnesty scheme availed saw 60% unfold from Karachi and 30% from Lahore. Islamabad positioned on third in the list of those availing the amnesty scheme. Most of the people availing the scheme had been rich people declaring their massive assets to whiten them.

The third result of the latest scheme has been maximum people depositing their local currency in bank accounts. Similarly, people having foreign currency also deposited it in their banks.

A senior tax official told, “We will be in a position to actually quantify the cash deposits due to the scheme in the next couple of days,”

The Benami law implementation

Six orders for attachment of benami property in the range of 6,000 kanals of land of PML-N Senator Chaudhry Tanveer for 90 days, under the Benami Act 2017, as the case has been referred to the adjudicating authority.

Similarly in the Omni Group cases, Karachi eight orders were issued for the attachment of property, which is mainly owned by PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari. The property has been attached for 90 days and the fate will be decided by the adjudicating authority.

These properties attached have been instituted under the National Accountability Bureau.

Three major zones, Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, were established by the government on July 1^st, and 11 sub-zones for adjudicating authorities to deal with benami properties that are required under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 2017.

An Adjudicating Authority under the law has been established by the government as it has started functioning from July 1.

The Inland Revenue officers have been posted in the benami zones established under Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act-2017, through another notification posted by FBR. The benami law has been started to be implemented by the benami zones.

Action against the benami properties has already been started, as per the instructions of the FBR chairman.

The FBR has announced to seize the assets of any citizen who fails to declare them from now on, under the government’s amnesty assets declaration scheme, after the declaration scheme expires.