No CGT on plots allotted to heirs of martyrs: Dar

Income Tax Amendment Ordinance 2016 enforced

LAHORE: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Sunday said the plots allotted to the dependents of martyrs will be exempted from Capital Gains Tax (CGT).

“It will be a one-time exemption,” he said. The heirs of the martyrs may sell the plots without payment of CGT however the subsequent transactions will attract the tax. “CGT will not apply to the sale of plots allotted to the heirs of the martyrs for one time only,” Dar said, addressing a news conference at Punjab House.

Moreover, he said the government officials will enjoy a 50% waiver of CGT on the sale of plots they get from the government in lieu of their services. He said that President Mamnoon Hussain has approved Income Tax Amendment Ordinance Bill 2016 enforcing the package announced by the government on Saturday for valuation of fair market value of property immediately.

“Legislation to enact the money bill will require at least one month, therefore, the government decided to implement it immediately through an ordinance," Dar said. The normal process of legislation in this regard would be initiated in the upcoming Senate and National Assembly sessions, he added.

The minister also announced on the occasion that President Mamnoon, on the advice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has consented to lifting of Customs Act, 1969 imposed in Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata). The act will cease to apply in Malakand division and Kohistan district, he added. Dar explained that the Act was implemented in Pata on March 28, 2016 on the request of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government and now on its request it was being repealed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2016.