The senate standing committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs has recommended to levy 12.5% tax on electric vehicles up to 50 kWh. The meeting of the committee was held under the chair of Senator Saleem Mandviwala on Wednesday.
FBR officials informed the committee that the finance bill also proposed to increase tax from 12.5% to 17% on imported CBU electric vehicles.
People are importing the expensive E-tron electric vehicles so we should encourage the taxes on expensive vehicles, he added.
Senator Farooq Ahmed Naik also supported the idea that the tax on expensive electric vehicles should be higher comparable to small electric vehicles.
Senator Zeeshan Khanzada and Mohsin Aziz said that we should encourage the use of electric vehicles and should not increase the taxes.
After the discussion, the committee members unanimously agreed to introduce different slabs for electric vehicles and recommended only to levy 12.5% tax on vehicles up to 50 kWh.
Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad informed that committee that the Finance bill proposed to enhance levy from Rs10,000 to Rs50,000 on business class for international travel from Pakistan.
Member of committee Senator Talha Mahmood suggested gradually increasing the tax on business class.
Chairman FBR said that the tax department will be able to collect this tax within the country.
The committee members directed that the tax should be implemented in such a way that the money would not go out of the country and the national exchequer would benefit from it.
The committee, after detailed consideration, unanimously approved the proposal.
Representatives of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce briefed the committee that the construction sector would be severely affected by the government’s ban on imported goods. They requested the FBR to lift restrictions on the construction industry.
They also informed that 6 big hotels are going to be built in Islamabad and if the ban is not lifted then these projects may be affected.
They also informed that advance tax on filers has been increased from 1% to 2% and for non-filers from 2% to 5% for the real estate industry adding that the representatives requested the government to reduce the tax for filers to 1%.
The committee recommended to the FBR that the advance tax for filers in real estate should not be increased from 1%.
Ministry of finance officials informed the committee that the government has also proposed to enhance levy on the import of mobile sets.
A levy ranging from Rs100 to Rs16000 has been proposed from up to $30 or above phones.
FBR officials said that it is expected to generate about Rs670 million in revenue. The committee also unanimously approved the levy on mobile phones.
Explaining the income tax proposals, member IR policy informed that the finance bill proposed to impose 2 percent tax on high earning persons for poverty alleviation.
Any person of a company has above Rs300 million profit on income then they are liable to pay 2% tax.
Saleem Mandviwala told the committee members that our government had imposed a super tax on banks which is still in force.
Replying to this, Chairman FBR said that if the situation improves then they will review this tax in future.
