Islamabad: The government has ignored 11 tax amendments proposed by the opposition parties in the Finance Bill 2015-16.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Tariq Bajwa said that the tax amendments were dropped apparently because the MNAs concerned were absent during the session.
Mr Bajwa, however, said that the treasury would have voted against them.
“We have already included proposals from various stakeholders,” the chairman said.
He further clarified that the nine amendments moved by the finance minister were actually received from various stakeholders, including senators. The MNAs who proposed amendments included Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Dr Nafisa Shah, Tariq Ullah, Mohammad Yaqoob, Sher Akbar Khan, Ms Aisha Syed, Shazia Mari, Naveed Qamar, Imran Zafar Leghari and Sher Akbar Khan.
The amendments proposed to give power to National Assembly in all cases for issuing of a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO). The government agreed partially but in certain cases empowered the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet to take the decision.
They also recommended lower tax rates in certain cases. It proposed that the rates of withholding tax should be reduced.
The government did not entertain certain proposals of the senators as well. The Senate proposed 92 amendments in the post-budget sessions. Of these, 20 were accepted while 21 others were partially accepted. In principle, an agreement was shown on 15 proposals but was not implemented.
