The members of the committee said the proposed scheme may help government increase the number of filers as it is likely to provide an easy way to many individuals to whiten their black money. The chairman of the committee, Saleem Mandivwala, said: "the scheme appears to be a non-starter and will not attract even 20,000 filers." He added that "Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) desire of making 2.2 million filers through the scheme seems to be a wish list." He also concurred with other members that government gave a way for whitening black money.
The committee members were also annoyed for their being bracketed with criminals as non-beneficiaries in the scheme. They stated "Only parliamentarians were bracketed with criminals in the scheme and asked as to what was the need to specifically mention parliamentarians' names in the law under exclusion category when there was no one except criminals were mentioned. The government has decided to introduce the scheme after failing to implement its decision to charge 0.6 per cent tax from non filers on their banking transactions".
The Chairman FBR gave a detailed briefing about the bill and called it a voluntary tax compliance bill targeted to make 2.2035 million traders as filers. The committee was told that out of 2.8 million traders of the country, only 625,000 traders file their tax returns. Another official stated that 256,000 traders are filers with either filing their returns with zero tax or very nominal tax and they are being attracted to increase 25 per cent turnover through the scheme.
He insisted that it is not an amnesty scheme, but an opportunity to traders to voluntarily file their tax returns. He further stated that the scheme will enhance tax compliance, expand tax base and discourage tax evasion. The Chairman further stated that the data of 2.2 million was identified through commercial connections of electricity and gas but acknowledged that it was not verified.
Senior officials of FBR said that scheme is an incentive for traders to become filers in 2015, however, if they file their return in the first years but failed to do so in the subsequent years than they would be disqualified from the scheme and have to pay taxes as general taxpayers do.
FBR, however, observed that the tax on bank transactions was introduced by Parliament but the scheme is being brought after a long discussion with traders therefore, success is expected. The meeting was attended among others by Senator Mohsin Laghari, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Senator Saud Majeed, Chairman FBR, and officers of ministry of Law, Petroleum.