PTI led amnesty scheme divides the business community

LAHORE: The businessmen in Punjab seem to be divided over the first tax amnesty scheme announced by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

While some have termed the scheme crucial for kick-starting economic activities within the country which seemed to have come to a halt during the elections and after PTI came into power. Others, however, have expressed serious concerns and have urged the government to take concrete long-term steps and develop policies rather than adopting policies of the previous government.
Meanwhile, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Almas Hyder said while talking to the media that, “This amnesty scheme will end the fear of tax authorities, which is currently prevailing in businessmen’s mind and heart.”
“The community is very much interested in declaring their hidden assets so they may do business peacefully in future,” he added.

He suggested that the new amnesty scheme will allow threats level to decline and businesses will grow. “People are now fed up with under-invoicing, mis-declaration of assets and most of them want to come out of this mess; I believe a lot of people will choose this scheme to avoid any future raids on their business premises,” he said.

As a general consensus among the business community, the real estate sector harbors the largest chunk of black money. While some may use real estate as a way of hiding their black money others use the loopholes within the system.

Earlier people used the amnesty scheme to legalize their money however they did not show their assets since they did not have to declare whether they had cash that they got from the sale of a property or they actually possess the property.

Meanwhile, this time around rumor has it that investors will now have to show receipts of cash received or actual property documents before they can avail the benefits of this new scheme.

Regardless of the developments within the scheme, a prominent businessman told Profit, “This amnesty scheme is nothing but a divergent from the larger issues at hand including the IMF bailout programme. The government needs to take concrete steps for the betterment of the economy. Businessmen with illlegal assests had already chosen which assets they wanted to declare and which assets they wanted to hide. And this amnesty scheme will not change anything and the government will not be able to reach its target.”

1 COMMENT

  1. A repeated/periodic step, yielding no tangible outcomes for state in past is not worth discussion even (max 113-114 bn), but by the time we realize that another step shd hv been taken, cyclone for us shall be much bigger.

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