The government will now be taxing mobile phone calls lasting more than five minutes.
This was announced by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin while addressing a session of the National Assembly, chaired by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, on Friday.
Tarin shared that speaking over your mobile for more than five minutes will be taxed at 75 paisas, but there will be no tax on an SMS.
Earlier, the finance minister had said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the cabinet had opposed the imposition of tax on mobile phone calls, internet data and SMS, after which they would not be taxed.
Tarin said that “harassment” by the Federal Board of Revenue is a problem for everyone, because of which tax payers do not file their returns.
For this, he said the government plans to set up a third party with a legal structure. “We will only do an audit and talk to the tax payer,” he said, emphasising that a tax payer will not be arrested.
He shared that the government has the profiles of at least 15 million people who are not paying their taxes. But the FBR will not approach these people. Instead, under the government’s new plan, the third party will approach these non-taxpayers.
Why did Pakistan go to the IMF?
The finance minister spoke about some of the major challenges faced by the PTI government and explained how the government tried to deal with these challenges.
The biggest problem, he said, when the PTI government came to power, was the country’s current account deficit of $20 million.
In the past, growth had been seen after taking loans, he said, explaining that the current account deficit left the government no choice but to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Tarin reasoned that Pakistan’s economy declined because IMF had placed some strict conditions, including an increase in the discount rate to 13%, devaluing the rupee and an increase in tariffs, when Pakistan approached it for its programme.
In addition to all this, Tarin said the icing on the cake was when the coronavirus pandemic took over the country.
He explained that Prime Minister Imran Khan then decided to develop the country’s industry.
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