The government of Pakistan has announced the budget 2018-19 three days back in the National Assembly of Pakistan, and it marked government’s sixth-budget while being in power. The 2018-19 fiscal year budget was announced by the newly inducted Finance Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail. The government has proposed many incentives for almost every sector of the country including automobile industry.
In this particular-write up we will be focusing on the point that non-filers will not be allowed to buy a vehicle. The government has proposed this in the parliament, which has led to the discussion in the automobile sector.
According to our research and media reports, the government will not allow non-filers to buy a new motor vehicle manufactured locally or imported until they file income tax return. It is to be noted here that this was proposed by the government and will be discussed in the parliament and once finalized then non-filer will not be able to buy new cars.
Read Also: Budget 2018-19: Government proposes reduction in customs duty on electric cars
Before compiling the story, we contacted a government official and he said that the step taken by the government is to encourage people/non-filers to file income tax return, which will increase the revenue of the government, he further added.
According to the official, 1.26 million tax returns were filed last year. That’s why this step has been taken to increase the tax collection, the official asserted. Furthermore, it was also revealed to us that non-filers cannot purchase property over PKR 40 lac.
One important thing to mention here is that in CCP’s open hearing on competition issues in automobile sector many automobile consumers complained and argued that government is not giving good incentives to people who are tax filers. The government should give us some leverage and compensations, they reiterated in the open hearing. This might also be one of the reasons government has proposed this initiative to curb the concerns of filers.
However, industry analysts said that the step proposed by the government is haphazard and might not get the green signal in the first place. Also, due to this premium on cars might also rise in the industry, the analysts said.
Moving onward, the government has also proposed the reduction of customs duty on import of firefighting vehicles from 30% to 10%.
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