Finance bill: Govt plans tax increase across the board

The government has proposed that service stations and cellular companies’ towers be brought in the tax net.

PESHAWAR:

In order to increase its revenue receipts for fiscal year 2014-2015, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has introduced several new taxes as well as an increase in the taxes levied on doctors and government employees.

The proposals to levy new taxes, cess and duties, and revise existing ones, were presented in the K-P Finance Bill 2014 tabled by Minister for Finance Sirajul Haq in the K-P Assembly on Saturday during the assembly’s budget session.

Under the bill, the provincial government has proposed a tax on agricultural land wherein a person earning more than Rs0.4 million from any piece of land will have to pay 5%-17% in tax.

Similarly, the rate of professional tax on medical practitioners has also been increased. Specialist doctors will be subjected to a tax of Rs20,000 per annum, while non-specialists, hakeems, homeopaths will have to pay Rs2,000 tax per year, and dentists Rs15,000 per year.

The government has also proposed that service stations and cellular companies’ towers be brought in the tax net, wherein service stations will have to pay Rs10,000 per year as General Sales Tax while mobile companies will have to pay Rs40,000 annually for their towers located in provincial headquarters, Rs30,000 per year for those located in divisional headquarters and Rs20,000 per year for those in district headquarters.

Land tax will also be collected on per acre of agricultural land. Government employees are also not exempt from the government’s tax revisions. The finance bill states employees of basic pay scale-5 to 22 will be liable to pay tax ranging from Rs100 to Rs2,000 per year. However, employees in BPS-1 to BPS-4 are exempted from paying taxes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2014.