Committees formed to address budget woes

Business and technical panels to submit recommendations by June 20

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has constituted two anomaly committees to remove business-related and technical ambiguities in the Finance Bill 2026 for the upcoming fiscal year 2026-27.

To address business-related ambiguities, a committee has been formed under Javed Qureshi, Chief Executive Officer of the Pakistan Business Council. A separate committee has been set up under Chartered Accountant Muhammad Raza to resolve technical ambiguities. Both committees will submit their recommendations and identified shortcomings in the Finance Bill to the Ministry of Finance's Tax Policy Office by June 20, 2026. The ministry has formally issued notifications in this regard.

According to the first notification, a high-level anomaly committee has been established to identify and resolve ambiguities and shortcomings in the Finance Bill related to the business community. The committee will review concerns and proposals from the business sector and formulate actionable recommendations.

The committee will be headed by Qureshi and will include Dr Najeeb Ahmed Memon (Director General, Tax Policy Office), Hamid Atiq Sarwar (Member Strategic Transformation, FBR), Ishad Javed (Member Customs Policy), and Sajjad Tasleem Azam (Member Inland Revenue Policy) as co-chairs. Representatives from major business and trade organisations have also been included.

According to the second notification, a separate special anomaly committee has been formed to address technical issues and ambiguities in the Finance Bill. This committee will review technical proposals and objections from the business community and other stakeholders and provide appropriate recommendations to the FBR.

The technical committee will be headed by Muhammad Raza, with Dr Najeeb Ahmed Memon, Hamid Atiq Sarwar, Sajjad Tasleem Azam and Ishad Javed serving as co-chairs.

It will include prominent experts from tax, customs, trade and business sectors, along with chartered accountants, representatives of tax bar associations and officials from the National Tariff Commission.