NA body puts off meeting over FBR chief’s absence

ISLAMABAD: The sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenues cancelled its meeting on Friday due to absence of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) high-ups and non-availability of boardroom for holding the huddle.

The sub-committee of the NA panel was supposed to finalise its recommendations on Tax Laws Amendment Bill 2024 but could not accomplish its task. It has been decided that the sub-committee will convene its meeting next week to firm up its proposal.

The NA panel had constituted a sub-committee to deliberate further on the proposal submitted by the Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) that the source of income should not be asked about the purchase of property up to Rs50 million.

The Tax Laws Amendment Bill 2024 has proposed that the buying of property of beyond Rs10 million should become eligible for the purchaser only if the worth is declared in the filed income tax return. If someone shows worth of Rs10 million they will be able to purchase property of Rs13 million worth.

The FBR also plans to introduce an App for voluntary amending the filed return if anyone wants to do in order to become eligible for buying any property, however, the FBR will have the power to ask about the justified source of income.

At the very outset of the meeting, when the sub-committee chairman Bilal Azhar Kayani MNA entered the FBR House, he inquired about the FBR chairman. “If the FBR chairman is not here, we will not continue meeting,” he told the FBR officials. However, Kayani was told that the FBR chief was called at PM Office for holding a meeting so he was not available for the NA panel’s sub-committee meeting.

Arif Habib, chairman of Arif Habib Dolmen REIT Management Limited, and ABAD representatives were present online.

The real estate tycoons had earlier asked the NA panel to amend the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 for not asking source of investment on property transactions up to Rs50 million. They later asked for fixing this limit at Rs25 million but the FBR had proposed it up to Rs10 million.

According to the original proposal awaiting National Assembly’s approval, no one can buy property worth more than 130 per cent of the liquid assets declared in the previous tax returns.

If the value of the property exceeds this threshold, the buyer must first explain the source, states the proposal.