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Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Senators decry judicial overreach
A 12-member panel, headed by Adviser to PM on NHLH Irfan Siddiqui, was constituted by PM. PHOTO: FILE Listen to article The Senate on Friday took exception to the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) move to issue stay orders on matters under discussion in parliamentary committees. Terming it a serious breach of privilege, the lawmakers called for the matter to be referred to the Senate's Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges. They also urged that the attorney general be summoned to explain the judiciary's overreach into parliamentary affairs. During the session, chaired by Senator Irfan Siddiqui, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) objected to the stay orders issued by the IHC and Lahore High Court (LHC) against upper house proceedings. "I have never seen stay orders against parliamentary proceedings before. This should be taken seriously," he said, urging the Senate to summon the attorney general. "We never interfere in court proceedings, but judges issuing stay orders against committee actions is direct interference in Parliament. It's becoming a joke." Shahadat Awan supported the call. "We will seek input from the law minister and summon the attorney general for clarification and action." Senator Anusha Rehman said such actions violated Article 66 of the Constitution and constituted a breach of privilege. "Issuing a stay order against a member of Parliament is a direct attack on their privilege," she said, urging the House to refer the matter to the privileges committee and have those responsible appear before it. "No one can stop us from speaking in this House," she added. Senator Kamran Murtaza expressed concern over reports of lawyers being picked up in Balochistan. "If someone has committed a crime, they should be punished under the law," he said. The Presiding Officer responded that a report on the matter would be sought.
Business Recorder
4 days ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Senate's functioning: Lawmakers express concern over IHC ‘interference'
ISLAMABAD: The lawmakers from different political parties from the two sides of the aisle in the Upper House of the Parliament have expressed concern over what they have termed is the interference of Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the Senate's functioning, demanding that attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) be summoned to convey the Senate's displeasure in this regard. 'Stay orders are being issued by the Islamabad High Court against the proceedings of the Senate's standing committees. This is tantamount to interference in the Senate's working,' Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) legislator and former deputy chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla said on the floor of the House on Friday. 'This House never interfered in the court proceedings despite that there is no such bar in the law,' he said. Practitioners, Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill: Senate body passes significant amendments The senator demanded that the AGP be summoned and informed that stay orders are being issued against the Senate committees' proceedings in the matters that are not sub judice. Kamran Murtaza from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) also demanded that the AGP be summoned, and he should be conveyed the displeasure of the House. 'Summon the attorney general today, and make him answerable. The Law minister should also be summoned and asked what is going on,' said Saifullah Abro from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). 'As per the law, no court can interfere in the proceedings of the Parliament. This practice is against the principle of the separation of powers,' said PPP's Zamir Hussain Ghumro. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary agreed that the AGP should be summoned. The matter would also be taken up with the law minister, he said. Shahadat Awan, who was presiding over the Senate session, said that a notice would be issued to the AGP regarding the matter involving interference of IHC into the proceedings of the Senate's standing committees. Meanwhile, Cabinet Division informed the Senate on Friday that the prime minister is entitled to monthly salary of Rs 1,007,280. The premier is entitled to yearly allowances of Rs 7.1 million including discretionary grant of Rs 1 million, staff allowance of 2.5 million, contract allowance of Rs 1.5 million, conveyance allowance of Rs 750,000, tour expenses allowance of Rs 750,000 and sumptuary allowance of Rs 600,000, according to Cabinet Division. Separately, the PM is also entitled to Rs 1.35 million yearly for the maintenance of official residence, reads the written reply of the Cabinet Division, shared with the Senate in response to a question posed by PTI's Zarqa Taimur. Under the relevant law, the PM is exempted from any customs duty or sales tax on the import of articles for 'personal use, wear or consumption of the prime minister or any member of his family provided that the cost of such articles shall not exceed two hundred thousand rupees per annum.' The Senate stands prorogued. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Tax exemption misuse: Senate panel voices concern over abuse of IT sector
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, while voicing its reservations over the statistics of the IT export proceeds provided by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), expressed apprehensions that other export sectors were using it for tax evasion. In a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance held under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, the SBP official said that the total IT exports from Pakistan was $920 million. He said that this amount was compiled on the basis of data provided by the banks. Senator Anusha Rahman questioned the credibility of the data. She said that in this amount there is no bifurcation that how much amount comes through the software exports or services provided by freelancers. Rahman said because of the non-availability of authentic data of freelancers export proceeds, the government is finding it difficult to convince international payment platforms such as PayPal to start operations in Pakistan because they think that the consumer base for them is very small. Chairman Committee Saleem Mandviwala said that a lot of textile mills have opened software houses and they were remitting a portion of their export proceeds in guise of IT exports. Rahmansaid there is only one percent tax on non-registered freelancers and IT exporters and on registered freelancers the tax rate is mere 0.25percent, whereas, the tax rate on textile and other sectors is 30 percent. She said there is a strong possibility that the exporters from other sectors might be using IT platform for tax evasion. The SBP official said the banks were fully vigilant and responsible to find out that whether any exporter was misusing the IT platform for tax evasion. He said so far, the SBPhad not find out any such dubious activity. He assured the committee that from now onwards the SBP would bifurcate freelancers' exports data on its website. While discussing software exports over the last 15 years, the committee recommended the SBP to submit data with the clear categorisation of freelancers' share in software exports. The committee also recommended the non-inclusion of periodical and journal subscriptions in the IT services list. Furthermore, the committee was briefed on the AI-based customs system introduced within the Export Facilitation Scheme. Officials informed that the AI system has been introduced to upgrade the existing machine learning model in order to bring efficiency to Pakistan Customs. Senator Mandviwalla inquired about the FBR's plan to introduce AI in Pakistan Customs and its expected benefits for the business sector. The committee recommended a detailed briefing on the inclusion of AI in Pakistan Customs, following the models of developed nations, in the upcoming meeting. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Taxpayers: KCCI tells Senate body FBR can't be judge, jury and executioner
ISLAMABAD: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Thursday categorically conveyed to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday that the business community cannot allow Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to simultaneously be the judge, jury and executioner of taxpayers. The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, met Thursday to discuss the anomalies in Financial Budget 2025-26. The Committee had an extensive discussion on several anomalies in the Financial Budget 2025–26. Members of the Chambers of Commerce briefed the Committee on these anomalies, with specific focus on the clauses granting powers to the FBR to arrest on the basis of suspicion. They warned the Committee about the potential misuse of such clauses for the harassment of the business community. KCCI slams FBR for its 'authoritarian' conduct, 'indifference' In a presentation before the committee, President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Jawed Bilwani highlighted that FBR has authorized Inland Revenue officers to arrest directors, CEOs, CFOs, and individuals involved in tax fraud under Section 37A of the Sales Tax Act, 1990. We cannot allow FBR to be the judge, jury and executioner of tax payers. This is a democratic country where citizens rights are protected by the judiciary. This act will cause harassment and corruption on a level unseen before eventually leading to taxpayers closing their legitimate businesses, moving their Investments abroad and Ease of doing Business Index sinking. To an all time low. The whole point of this law is to catch people who issue fake or flying invoices so is it not easier to simply specify this law for this specific offence. Jawed Bilwani further specified that the Definition of tax fraud is too vague and extremely open ended and there are apprehension of its abuse. Therefore, the said definition be restricted to make it applicable only in cases of issuance of fake and flying invoices. President KCCI stated that the new section14AE gives FBR very scary powers to force taxpayers into registering for sales tax. This law should be made softer in stance and powers need to be curtailed to an understandable extent. The language of this law will scare anyone even thinking of registering as a Sales Tax filer from entering the regime. This is a classic example of carrot and stick. We do not endorse this measure and urge FBR to have a more reasonable approach. Jawed Bilwani added that e-bilty should be removed under section 40C to remove local transfer of goods within Pakistan from this act. Digital invoicing should be implemented in a phase wise manner starting from multinationals and Public Limited entity with a Turnover in excess of Rs10 billion and then moved to the medium and ultimately small sized taxpayers with respect to turnovers. The system should be made absolutely free. Currently only one integrator certified by FBR is free while others are at cost. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
5 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
IMF ties 4% tax removal to wider net
Listen to article Pakistan said on Thursday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not allow it to abolish the additional 4% sales tax being collected from unregistered persons and instead linked the removal with a one-fourth increase in sales tax base. The supposedly punitive 4% extra tax is now a way of remaining outside the tax net as businesses feel comfortable with paying the additional tax and then recovering it through prices, instead of becoming part of the tax net. The IMF rejected a proposal to abolish 4% sales tax and asked to first register 50,000 more persons in the sales tax regime, said Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar, Member Inland Revenue Operations of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance. PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwalla chaired the meeting, which was convened to address concerns of the business community and recommend solutions. Mandviwalla supported efforts to discourage tax evasion and broaden the tax base. There are hardly 200,000 registered sales tax persons, of which only 60,000 pay any tax, said Sarwar, who is reaching the superannuation age this week after having a splendid career in the FBR. The government had introduced the additional tax to compel people to come into the tax net, which is charged over and above the standard 18% sales tax. However, the businesses passed the extra tax on to consumers and avoided the net. There were heated discussions in the meeting between the FBR and business leaders over the new punitive powers introduced in the budget. The military establishment has now intervened in the matter after traders observed strikes in Lahore and Karachi. The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) held a meeting this week to resolve issues related to the FBR's arrest powers and adding back over Rs200,000 worth of expenses in cash to the income of businesses. After the intervention, the FBR seemed in a mood to address genuine concerns of the business community. Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rehan Bharara questioned whether the FBR used its earlier punitive powers, including the disconnection of electricity and gas supply. Out of 380,000 industrial connections and 5 million commercial connections, only 5% were in the name of current allottees, thus, they could not be disconnected, said Hamid Ateeq Sarwar. The low collection from retailers remains one of the concerns but the FBR on Wednesday made a surprising claim before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that it got an additional Rs455 billion from the retail sector in the last fiscal year. The claim requires independent verification as there are concerns that some of the corporate sector firms are also included in the retail category. Officials of the FBR claimed that total income tax payments made by the retail sector in fiscal year 2024-25 were in fact Rs617 billion and the additional income tax was Rs455 billion. They said that the collection of Rs617 billion included Rs316 billion in quarterly advances given by three categories, wholesalers, retailers, traders and some companies. The surprising Rs316 billion in quarterly advances could be looked into with critical lenses due to the highly informal nature of the sector. Sources in the FBR told The Express Tribune that a loose definition of the retail sector was used, which included some corporate sector firms. Representatives of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) once again raised the issue of arrest powers and penalising the use of cash above Rs200,000 worth of purchases. Senator Anusha Rahman of the PML-N pointed out some loopholes in the newly approved tax laws, which could be exploited by taxmen against the business community. Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani said that the prime minister has instructed that harassment of taxpayers will not be tolerated at any cost and the government stands ready to take action if any businessperson is hurt by the misuse of arrest powers. Anusha Rahman said that the recently approved law empowers the arrest of taxpayers on "suspicion" and "reasons to believe". She recommended that no person should be arrested until the FBR has evidence of sales tax fraud. Hamid Ateeq Sarwar said that the government could not amend the law before the next budget but those concerns would be addressed through a subordinate legislation by issuing an explanatory circular. However, PTI Senator Mohsin Aziz said that the subordinate legislation could not supersede the law. Immediate amendments to tax laws would reflect poorly on the standing committees that debated those amendments, parliament that approved the laws and the government that proposed them, remarked Saleem Mandviwalla. Sarwar came down hard on business leaders, saying that in the past two years attempts were made for a whopping Rs2.2 trillion worth of sales tax fraud and the FBR registered FIRs against those people. "If anyone has doubt, we can arrange their meetings with these people in jail," he said.
