In a major development, a National Assembly Panel on Thursday connected the approval of legal changes to prohibit financial transactions from unjustified persons with the ability of taxators to develop an independent and credible online platform to determine the real value of people’s assets. The condition came a day after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the government may need to take RS500 billion worth more tax measures if the National Assembly did not approve the law to ban economic transactions. The committee would not adopt the changes in the financial transactions until the members are satisfied that the Federal Board of Revenue has developed an independent and reliable online platform to assess people’s assets, the Standing Committee on Finance President Syed Naveed Qamar said. The government has suggested that only these people can buy cars, land, invest in securities that have sufficiently declared white legal resources to buy these assets and maintain bank accounts, which the Finance Minister repeated on Thursday that the IMF has accepted RS389 billion in collections due to improved enforcement in the next financial statements and for the new legal bumps. Last month, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Funding had linked the bill’s approval to prohibit financial transactions with the government’s ability to develop a credible online mechanism where the criterion for eligibility can be independently determined and verified without harassment by the tax authorities. PPP’s MNA Mirza Ikhtiar Baig raised the question of first assessing the credibility of the new platform to ensure that taxpayers are not harassed by FBR. Financial Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal announced to the Committee that the government has decided to give a 50% special relief allowance to all officers of the armed forces and 20% to other soldiers, in a step that recognizes their contribution to defense of the nation. This brings the overall increase in wages for officers of the armed forces to 60% and to 30% for other soldiers after incorporating the effect of the regular increase in their salaries announced on June 10th. The announcement was made for the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, which on Thursday began discussions of the financial ticket 2026, which is the real budget. The government has given special relief allowance corresponding to 50% of the basic salary scale for the officers and 20% to junior commissioners and soldiers, secretary financing said. The head of the opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan, who is also a member of the standing committee, asked about the fiscal impact of the special relief.
The taxman told to improve skills
