Finance Bill 2011

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Saturday, June 12, 2010
By Mansoor Ahmad

LAHORE: The Finance Bill 2011 contains 147 amendments that are likely to affect the terms and conditions of the employment for the officers of the Pakistan Customs Service and the Income Tax Service, tax experts said.

The proposed amendments in the money bill seek to incorporate changes in the Customs and the Income Tax services made through a Presidential Ordinance, which now stands challenged in the Lahore High Court. A full bench of LHC was hearing petition against the said ordinance on the grounds that no law can change the terms and conditions of retrospectively.

Naveed Anwar Khan FCA said that FBR as part of its commitment with World Bank and IMF created Inland Revenue Service. The board paid handsome charges to foreign consultants for the restructuring process, he said.

“Now the FBR has moved 47 amendments in Sales Tax Act, 17 amendments in Income Tax Ordinance and 30 major amendments in Federal Excise Act. Through these amendments total structure of the services has adversely been affected,” he said.

He pointed out that under Article 73(2) of the Constitution the finance bill includes the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulations of tax. “This article clearly specifies the scope of money bill, which in no way and under no circumstances can be brought to affect service structure of any government service group” Khan said.

He pointed out that FBR has tried to bypass the Senate, as its approval of the money bill is not mandatory.

The Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance has already rejected any amendment through money bill other than what the money bill can constitutional bring.

Faisal Qmar, chartered accountant, said that after failing to evolve consensuses on Value Added Tax (VAT), the FBR has tried to twist the fiscal system by adversely demolishing the institutional arrangement of FBR.

He said it is surprising that with tax reform model, the FBR has failed to achieve even modest target of collecting 9 per cent of GDP, while further denting the whole system through monetary bill.

Certified Public Accountant Asif Ali Shahid regretted that on the behest heavily paid foreign consultants, “the FBR has attempted to befool the legislature and superior judiciary.”

It is high time that the government take FBR to task for circumventing money bill in such a way that it undermines the legislative and executive writ of the government, he concluded.