‘Pakistan Honour Card’ launched for top exporters, taxpayers

Card holders will be issued official passports, VIP lounge facility at airports

ISLAMABAD:

 

The federal government has introduced the ‘Pakistan Honour Card’ scheme for the tax year 2023 to encourage top taxpayers and exporters, and provide them special privileges and facilities, according to documents available with The Express Tribune.

The recipients of the ‘Pakistan Honour Card’ would be selected from among those who received awards from the prime minister at the Tax Excellence Award ceremony on March 26, 2024.

According to a notification issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the card would be issued for one year.

The scheme will be implemented from March. The notification stated that the cards would be issued to top nine exporters, including two from chemical products, food products, leather, machinery, pharmaceutical and sports goods sectors.

Top exporter in the steel and metal products, paper and plastic sectors, top exporters of non-traditional and innovation-oriented commodities, top three exporters in the information technology sector and the top two exporters showing the highest growth during the last year, would also be issued the card.

Top three exporters among the new exporters category would also be honoured for the first time. Besides, the top three women exporters will also be given the ‘Pakistan Honour Card’, according to the notification.

Similarly, the top 12 taxpayers will be issued these cards. They include five largest companies across all categories of taxpayers in terms of tax payment. Similarly the Associations of Persons (AOPs), paying the highest amount of tax would also be included.

Top five individual taxpayers, two largest taxpayers in the category of new taxpayers, top three taxpayers in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector, will be issued the Pakistan Honour Card, the notification added.

According to the document, the eligibility criteria set for the card, include determination of the highest taxpayer based on the statement and tax returns submitted by the taxpayer provided that there were no arrears in terms of tax liabilities and there was no tax dispute case or injunction from any court.

Besides, another condition was that there must be no criminal proceeding against the taxpayer in any court of law. The recipients of the ‘Pakistan Honour Card’ will be issued official passports; given access to the VIPs lounges at airports and fast-track clearance facility at immigration counters.
The document further stated that these facilities and other benefits provided to the top taxpayers under the Pakistan Honour Card will be available for one year from the date of issuance of the card.