Finance Bill 2022: Senate adopts nearly 27 recommendations.

ISLAMABAD -- The Senate on Thursday adopted 27 recommendations related to Finance Bill 2022 and proposed multiple recommendations on the public sector development program.

The recommendations on the Finance Bill, 2022 would be forwarded to National Assembly that would decide whether or not these recommendations are to be incorporated in the money bill.

At the Senate sitting, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Saleem Mandviwala presented his report on the Finance Bill 2022 that was adopted by the House. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani presided over the sitting.

Speaking on the floor of the House, Saleem Mandviwala appreciated the role of all members of the Standing Committee and team of Ministry for extending their support to the finance panel in preparation of the recommendations.

The Senate recommended to the National Assembly that this act is against the principle of Sales Tax and Value added tax and as such sales tax should be collected from the all the sales points. However, exemption on the real small retailer i.e. with shop size of 6x6 or 6x8 non air condition retailer should be based on their electricity bill.

The Senate recommended to the NA that retrospective exemption of Federal Excise Duty to Newly Merged Districts should be provided and in order to promote economic prosperity and implement the true spirit of the exemptions promised, all previously uncollected taxes on sales including electricity bills to be also exempted for the year 2019 to 2020. With the Passage of 25th Constitutional Amendment, FATA and PATA stood merged in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. A phased approached was needed for the full application of fiscal law to erstwhile Tribal/Newly Merged Districts (NMDs) therefore a decision was made to exempt all taxes which would have not applied had Article 247 of the Constitution not been omitted under the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018. However, against the spririt of this decision, Federal Excise Duty was imposed in NDMs brining the excisable goods produced in these areas under the ambit of taxation. Furthermore, FED was also imposed on steel sector and ghee sector.

The Senate recommended to the NA that government should ensure the reduction of sugar content in sodas, juices energy drinks and iced teas for better human health.

The Senate recommended to NA that in (Annex-VI (Chapter 99 of Pakistan custom tariff against pct code 9942) for the...