Govt asked to restore budget documents.

Byline: Shahbaz Rana

ISLAMABAD -- A Senate panel on Friday directed the government to restore the budget documents in their original form and rejected a proposal aimed at binding taxpayers to share all information with tax authorities.

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, which was deliberating the Finance Bill 2020 in detail, turned down the government's proposal that would require a taxpayer to submit his profile before seeking income tax registration.

The government has proposed that every person applying for income tax registration will have to disclose all his bank accounts, utility connections, business premises including all manufacturing, storage or retail outlets operated or leased by the taxpayer, type of business and all other such information.

According to the budget proposal, the existing 2.5 million taxpayers will have to furnish the information by December 31, 2020 and within three months in case of newly registered persons.

'It is a scary proposal that the standing committee cannot endorse,' said Committee Chairman Senator Farooq H Naek.

But Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Policy Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar argued that without having complete profile of a taxpayer, it could not document the economy.

Pakistan's tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio had been less than 10% for the last many years and it could not be increased to 15% without approval of the taxpayer's profile clause, said Sarwar.

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance is probably the only parliamentary forum that has been discussing the budget in minute details aimed at improving the budgeting process, knowing the rationale of tax proposals and making recommendations where it deems fit.

However, its recommendations are not binding on the government in case of the Finance Bill and the National Assembly is only empowered to accept or veto a tax proposal - a constitutional issue that needs a review.

The standing committee directed the finance ministry to restore the budget-in-brief document in its original form, terming the new shorter revised version an attempt to 'cheat the system and end transparency'.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq raised the issue of making changes in the budget-in-brief document after its presentation in parliament. 'It is really an attempt to cheat the system and end transparency,' she remarked.

The Express Tribune reported on Thursday that the finance ministry revised the budget-in-brief document...