NA passes Finance Bill with Rs463b new taxes

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly on Thursday approved the Rs17.6 trillion worth budget along with Rs463 billion new taxes, bringing the digital economy under the purview of tax laws but almost nullified the single largest enforcement measure to ban economic transactions by ineligible persons.

The National Assembly approved the second budget of the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a comfortable majority. During a voting on one clause, the coalition government mustered the support of 201 Members of the National Assembly as against 57 votes of the opposition parties.

It was also the second budget presented by Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb in the National Assembly. With the approval of the assembly and subsequent assent by President Asif Ali Zardari, the Finance Act 2025 will come into effect from Tuesday.

The National Assembly approved a Rs17.6 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2025-26, making the single largest allocation of Rs8.2 trillion for the interest payments.

The defense spending would consume Rs2.55 trillion, the single largest expense in the budget, excluding expenses on the armed forces development programme and military pensions.

The subsidies are the third biggest head with over Rs1.1 trillion allocation, followed by over Rs1 trillion for pensions, Rs1 trillion for development spending and another Rs917 billion for running the civil government.

The National Assembly also approved to effectively exempt the income of Beaconhouse National University, Federal Ziauddin University, Punjab Police Welfare Organization and Army Officers Benevolent Fund and Bereaved Family Scheme from the tax.

Tax on the contracts of the National Logistic Cell (NLC) has been set at a minimum of 3% of the gross value of the contracts. But if the total liability is more than the collected tax, the NLC will be charged at the normal income tax rate of 29%, according to the bill approved by the National Assembly.

Arrest powers for the Federal Board of Revenue will stay in the law but with inclusion of some more safeguards, as stated by both Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar.

This is the best budget that any government can give in challenging circumstances, said the chairman FBR while talking to The Express Tribune. He said some fundamental principles have been set in the budget, including creating deterrence against frauds and giving a framework for registration of taxpayers for the sales tax purposes.

To discourage use of cash, the chairman FBR said that the National Assembly has approved not to give expenses' allowance in case the value of the cash payment is over Rs200,000. Likewise, the input tax adjustment has also been disallowed on cash payments of supplies beyond a certain threshold, he added.

Langrial said that the foreign vendors and the digital marketplaces have also been brought under the ambit of the tax laws.

The National Assembly approved Rs463 billion worth of new tax measures, including Rs36 billion that were introduced after the presentation of the budget in the National Assembly on June 12th. The biggest measures in the budget were imposing taxes, both on sales and income, on the online platforms, e-commerce, cash-on-delivery by couriers, and tax on digital services like streaming.

A new climate support levy Rs2.5 per liter levy is imposed on every liter of petrol and diesel. Another new tax of 1% to 3% has been imposed on conventional fuel-based cars to subsidize electric vehicles. The pensioners have been brought in the tax net, but only annual pensions of above Rs10 million are taxed at the rate of 5%. The fourth new tax is Rs10 federal excise duty on every one-day-old chick sold in the country.

The government had claimed collecting Rs389 billion in the next fiscal year on the back of the single largest enforcement measure of banning the economic transactions by the ineligible persons. The Finance Minister had warned in his post-budget press conference that if the Parliament did not pass this law then up to Rs500 billion mini-budget would have to be introduced.

The government on the "instructions" by the Prime Minister has tamed down these stringent powers.

The National Assembly approved that the ban on buying a residential plot or houses by an ineligible person will apply only if the value of the property is over Rs50 million. This limit is over Rs100 million for commercial plots or properties. The ineligible persons can still buy up to Rs7 million cars.

The chairman FBR Rashid Langrial said that in the first step, the government has established the principle of ineligible and the limits can be revised in the future.

Early this year, the FBR chairman had informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance that due to almost no capacity of the FBR to audit the tax statements, the rate of success in inquiring the people about the source after making these purchases was only 3.7%.

The ineligibility condition will apply only if the value of cash withdrawal from the bank account is more than Rs100 million per annum. The ineligibility condition on stock market investment would be applicable, if the cumulative investment in a year is more than Rs50 million.

However, the ineligible persons cannot maintain saving accounts in the banks.

The finance minister also announced to exempt a residential property owner from payment of up to 6.5% withholding tax at the time of sale, if the property is sold after retaining it for at least 15 years.

The National Assembly also approved to increase the income tax rate on the income derived from the debt portion of mutual funds issued to companies from 25% to 29%. It also approved to increase the income tax rate on profit earned from giving loans to the government from 15% to 20%.

The National Assembly slapped a Federal Excise Duty (FED) of Rs10 per day-old chick. The government has estimated that about 1.5 billion chicks are produced every year and it will collect Rs15 billion by taxing a product that is a common diet of the poor and the rich.

The National Assembly approved 10% sales tax on the import of solar panels.

Tax Fraud arrest powers

The National Assembly approved to give the arrest powers to the FBR in the sales tax fraud cases after multiple rounds of negotiations between the PPP and the PML-N.

According to the law passed by the National Assembly, a person cannot be arrested at the inquiry stage of the sales tax fraud. In case of arrest, the accused will have the right to get bail from the court. These two new safeguards were added after the latest round of negotiations between the PPP and the PML-N on Wednesday.

Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Thursday that his party was wholeheartedly supporting the federal budget after the government accepted its demands to exempt income tax on salaried individuals earning Rs100,000 and reduce sales tax on solar panels.

However, contrary to Bilawal's claim, the government has not exempted the Rs1.2 million salaried incomes from the tax. The rate of income tax on up to Rs1.2 million annual incomes will be 1%, compared to 5% before the budget, according to the bill approved by the National Assembly.

The income tax on annual income of Rs1.2 million has been exempted on the PPP demand, said Bilawal Bhutto while speaking at the floor of the house.

Bilawal further said that the government also agreed to the PPP's reservations about giving arrest powers to the FBR. The government agreed that the arrest powers will only be limited to sales tax forgery and at the inquiry stage no arrest will be made, said Bilawal.

The tax fraud will also be a bailable offense, said the PPP chairperson while announcing his party's agreement with the government on the arrest powers.

The Express Tribune reported on Thursday that the PPP had refused to vote on the bill due to a proposal to give arrest powers to the FBR. However, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar convinced PPP to withdraw the objections.

Dar also told The Express Tribune that new safeguards have been added in the Finance Act to address the PPP's concerns.

The PPP chairman said that the government also increased the BISP budget by 20% on the demand of the PPP. The government has allocated Rs716 billion for the BISP for the next fiscal year.