Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Thursday that his party was wholeheartedly supporting federal budget after the government accepted its demands to exempt income tax on salaried individuals earning Rs100,000 and reduce sales tax on solar panels.
The income tax on annual income of Rs1.2 million has been exempted on the PPP demand, said Bilawal Bhutto while speaking at the floor of the house.
He further said that the government also agreed to the PPP’s reservations about giving arrest powers to the Federal Board of Revenue.
The government agreed that the arrest powers will only be limited to sales tax forgery and at the inquiry stage no arrest will be made, said Bilawal.
The tax fraud will also be a bailable offense, said the PPP chairperson while announcing his party’s agreement with the government on the arrest powers.
Read: PPP hardens stance on ‘draconian powers’ for taxman
The Express Tribune reported on Thursday that the PPP had refused to vote on the bill due to a the proposal to give arrest powers to the FBR.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar convinced PPP to withdraw the objections.
Dar also told The Express Tribune that new safeguards have been added in the Finance Act to address the PPP’s concerns.
Bilawal said that the PPP had demanded that there should be no tax on up to Rs1m income. He said that now we are told that there will be no tax on salary of up to Rs1.2 million per annum.
He said that the government also increased the BISP budget by 20% on the demand of the PPP. The government has allocated Rs716 billion for the BISP for the next fiscal year.
