ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced a tax exemption on the profit of Eurobonds as well as international Sukuk.
According to an SRO issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the federal government has approved an exemption for the purpose of the said clause to the profit on debt income of an agency, of a foreign government, a foreign national company, firm or association of person, or any other non-resident person on Eurobonds and international Sukuk bonds issued under the government medium-term note programme.
An official who spoke with Profit said that the government wants to raise one to two billion dollar bonds in the international market within two months to raise foreign reserves. The investors who would invest and earn profits will not be required to pay up to 30 per cent income tax along with other taxes.
Earlier, it was reported that the government had given Rs1.15 trillion in tax exemptions to the affluent and under international commitments in the last fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20).
The FBR official said that the board notifies the exemption whenever the government issues new Eurobonds.
Meanwhile, the board also announced to launch of a new complaint redressal mechanism aimed at solving complaints of taxpayers against corruption and other malpractices in Inland Revenue field formations.
Documents state that the FBR has issued SOPs to conceal the identity of the complainant in case of backlash from an official and providing a secure channel to lodge complaints. “The complaints would be opened, acknowledged, and treated as per law in a highly confidential manner. The identity of the complainants would be immediately masked and encoded to safeguard them against any undue consequences”.
To protect complainants from backlash by an accused official, FBR member operations will keep all complaints confidential. The identity of the complainants would be masked and encoded to safeguard them against any undue consequences.
All complaints will be received by member Inland Revenue-Operations himself on an especially dedicated cellphone, +92-0345-5555507, which would be in his own possession, exclusively, the tax collection body said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the complaint must be supported by some evidence such as audio or video recording, text message exchanged with the FBR functionary or any other documents, which could be attached with the text message, or subsequently sent by hard mail. However, if no such evidence is readily available, an affidavit on a legal paper, clearly spelling out the allegation and the person against whom the allegations are levelled would suffice.
