There were widespread media reports that the government plans to rollback tax relief provided to the individuals and a proposed finance bill was presented to the meeting of the federal cabinet for making amendments in the Finance Act 2018. Addressing a news conference after the cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain stated that the Finance Amendment Bill has not been presented before the Cabinet and it will be tabled in the Parliament. There is no such proposal under consideration as part of taxation measures for the current fiscal year.
He said that the media reports regarding increase in tax rate for salaried class are baseless and added that "at the moment no such thing has happened." The minister also stated that "media should check the facts before filing such news. Everyday they speculate and give wrong stories, be it related to gas, petroleum or electricity, he further maintained.
He said, "Often newspapers print headlines about things that never happened. They said tariffs of gas and electricity are being increased, but it was not true. There were newspaper reports that the government is increasing income tax rates for the salaried class. Nothing like this has happened."
He said that proposed amendments in the Income Tax Ordinance were not on the agenda of the cabinet session chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier in the day.
The minister also stated that cabinet paid tribute to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for setting up Dam Fund. "Dam Fund credit goes to the Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar," he further said, adding that the Fund will be exempted from income tax.
Chaudhry also announced that the federal government had decided to investigate the cost of metro bus projects initiated by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. The minister also criticized the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government for initiating mass-transit project that required annual subsidy of Rs 8 billion. The minister said that Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus service requires Rs 2 billion subsidy while Lahore and Multan metro bus projects need annual subsidy of Rs 2.1 billion while Orange Train Service requires a subsidy of Rs 3.5 billon per annum. Cost of Orange Line Train has increased to Rs 250 billion.
He said that the federal cabinet has given the approval to end the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development (CAD), adding that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) will work under the Interior Ministry.