Govt exempts income tax on annual salary below Rs1.2m
The salaried class was the most affected segment that paid a record Rs437 billion in taxes till April, which were 52%, or Rs150 billion, more than last year. photo: FILE
Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Thursday that his party was wholeheartedly supporting federal budget after the government accepted its demands to exempt income tax on salaried individuals earning Rs100,000 and reduce sales tax on solar panels.
The income tax on annual income of Rs1.2 million has been exempted on the PPP demand, said Bilawal Bhutto while speaking at the floor of the house.
He further said that the government also agreed to the PPP's reservations about giving arrest powers to the Federal Board of Revenue.
The government agreed that the arrest powers will only be limited to sales tax forgery and at the inquiry stage no arrest will be made, said Bilawal.
The tax fraud will also be a bailable offense, said the PPP chairperson while announcing his party's agreement with the government on the arrest powers.
Read: PPP hardens stance on 'draconian powers' for taxman
The Express Tribune reported on Thursday that the PPP had refused to vote on the bill due to a the proposal to give arrest powers to the FBR.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar convinced PPP to withdraw the objections.
Dar also told The Express Tribune that new safeguards have been added in the Finance Act to address the PPP's concerns.
Bilawal said that the PPP had demanded that there should be no tax on up to Rs1m income. He said that now we are told that there will be no tax on salary of up to Rs1.2 million per annum.
He said that the government also increased the BISP budget by 20% on the demand of the PPP. The government has allocated Rs716 billion for the BISP for the next fiscal year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
24 minutes ago
- Express Tribune
Pakistan's poverty is political
The writer is a Lecturer in English at the Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Email him at namdar057@ Listen to article By any decent standard, Pakistan is broke: not in fiscal lingo or glossy budgetary graphs but broke in a way that gnaws at the stomach. World Bank numbers show a shocking 44.7% of Pakistanis stay below the global poverty line. That works out to more than 107 million people scraping by on less than $4.20 a day (under Rs1,200 for the full twenty-four hours). That's not even the worst of it. Upwards of 39 million — 16.5% of the country - live in what the world euphemistically calls 'extreme poverty'. That's not living, that's barely hanging on, that's economic abandonment. These numbers are long past their expiry. They're based on a 2018-19 survey, like diagnosing a patient today using a six-year-old X-ray. They don't reflect the 2022 floods that drowned homes and livelihoods alike. They don't account for the punishing inflation of the past few years, turning grocery, gas and electricity bills into waking nightmares. Imagine the horror the real numbers would reveal if they reflected today's reality. We're flying blind or pretending the plane is fine while it plummets. World Bank says this surge in poverty isn't from worsening conditions per se but from a shift in how poverty is now measured globally. In other words, people didn't suddenly get poorer, the goalposts just moved. About 82% of that spike is due to the new poverty line; the rest — 18% — is thanks to Pakistan's own price surges from 2017 to 2021. We'll get the full picture in September. Maybe then we'll finally see the truth for what it is. Maybe it'll stir someone awake in Islamabad. Maybe that'd serve as a reality check for those still playing policy ping-pong in air-conditioned offices. Meanwhile, the HRCP is done mincing words. It has called for a living wage - not just a minimum wage. That's not semantics. There's a world of difference. A minimum wage keeps you just above the grave. A living wage lets you breathe with dignity. The HRCP says a family of six needs at least Rs75,000 a month to live with basic dignity while the government pegs it at Rs37,000. Never mind that the government leaves it to rot on paper. It's policy on paper and paper doesn't quiet hunger or pay the rent when the month is up. What's the value of a policy if it never touches the ground? I know teachers in private schools pulling in Rs9,000 a month. A woman in my neighborhood teaches at a government primary school for Rs3,000 a month. That's not a wage. That's an insult! A middle-aged bakery salesman I know was earning Rs7,500 until recently. Yes, he finally got a raise, but you can guess how far that crumb really goes. Maybe enough for an extra packet of tea. These aren't rare outliers. This is business as usual. Employers operate with impunity because labour laws exist like paper tigers; because they (employers) exploit loopholes and underpay at will; because there are always others desperate enough to take the same job for even less. And then we wonder why our young people drown off Greek shores, fleeing a country that gave them nothing but unpaid internships, underpaid jobs and broken promises. They know the risks. They know they might not make it. They still go. Because hope — even a sliver — feels worth dying for when home offers only hunger, humiliation and hopelessness. We're not just poor in numbers; we lack the will, the compassion and the basic belief that a citizen deserves more than just survival. We're not poor because poverty sneaked up on us. We are poor because we've been kept poor by policies that drone on about 'reforms' while people can't afford 'daal', by leaders who hold pressers on economic growth while schoolteachers earn less than what a politician's tie costs, by a system that only works for those already at the top. This country is starving. Not just for food but for fairness.
Business Recorder
16 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Domestic consumers: Pakistan govt hikes gas fixed charges
ISLAMABAD: Federal government has approved increase in the fixed charges for domestic gas consumers of both gas companies (SNGPL/ SSGC) by Rs150 (protected) and Rs400 (non-protected) effective from July 1, 2025. With an average 10 percent tariff hike will applicable to the power sector, bulk consumers, and general industry (process). The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), on Friday, approved the summary submitted by the Petroleum Division, seeking approval for a revised natural gas pricing structure for the fiscal year 2025–26. The ECC considered the proposed adjustments in energy sector tariffs and decided to maintain gas prices to protect household consumers with only fixed charges re-adjusted in domestic sector to recover the asset costs. It also allowed price of gas for bulk consumers, power plants operating on natural gas and industry to be increased by an average value of around 10 percent. SNGPL, SSGC: Weighted average price of imported RLNG cut slightly The committee approved a raise in gas tariff to bulk consumers from Rs2,900 per mmbtu to Rs3,075 per mmbtu. For power sector tariff has revised from Rs1,050 per mmbtu to Rs1,313 per mmbtu. For general industry (process) tariff was revised from Rs2,150 to Rs2,350 per mmbtu. The minimum bill for protected and non-protected consumer will be calculated at the first tariff slab of each category. Power tariff would also be stand revised for PPL's gas supply to Guddu, and Mari Energies' gas supply to Foundation Power. According to the summary submitted for consideration of ECC, it argues that only room to revise prices is available in the domestic sector slabs, wherein, a huge cross-subsidy is involved which is estimated at Rs168 billion per annum at current prices. Government is already engaged with IMF under the resilience sustainability facility to replace cross-subsidies with direct or budgeted subsides in commensuration with income levels of the domestic consumers under the BISP. As per the reform measure, the framework for replacing the cross-subsidy would be developed by June 2026 following the model being pursued by Power Division which is expected to be rolled out in 2027. Petroleum Division worked out option whereby revision in the gas tariff, as well as, fixed charge has been proposed; however, in order to lower the impact of price revision in domestic sector, the revision in bulk domestic, industry (process) and power sector, which is unchanged since February 2023, has also been approved. The revisions in gas tariff are estimated to meet Rs41 billion revenue deficit of SNGPL and it would also generate Rs31 billion surplus for SSGC which would be utilised to meet prior revenue shortfall of SSGC which are around Rs565 billion. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
18 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Low-cost housing projects hit dead end
Even after the passage of 12 years, residential projects introduced by the Sindh government for providing decent housing to the low-income segments of Karachi remain hanging in uncertainty. Amidst complex bureaucratic hurdles and shifting priorities of the government, many deserving families can imagine comfortable living in their dreams only. In the financial year 2008-09, a low-cost housing project was initiated under the management of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell. As part of this project, low-cost houses were to be constructed in different districts of the province. According to officials of the housing cell, 18,700 low-cost houses have been constructed in three phases, Under this scheme, 6,000 houses were to be constructed in Karachi, but not a single house has been built there to date. After this, during the same tenure of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the Sindh government had announced another project under which 50,000 poor families of the province, including Karachi, were to be given free plots totaling 120 square yards in area size. However, so far, only 27,000 plots have been given to the deserving families across Sindh. The project was also supposed to accommodate families of PPP workers martyred during the bomb blast in October 2007. The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Town was built at the Hawks Bay area of Karachi, where 18,000 plots of 120 square yards were given to impoverished families including the relatives of the martyred PPP workers and local journalists. Due to lack of necessary development and other problems, most of the allottees could not build their houses and were forced to sell their plots at cheap prices due to poverty. Many others however, remained deprived of their promised land, due to the outdated system of government offices. A PPP worker from Lyari, on the condition of anonymity, revealed that when the project had started, they had made several rounds of the respective offices, but each time they were told that the paperwork had not yet started. Similarly, another PPP worker from Lyari, shared that even though he was given a plot under the scheme, he did not have money to construct a house. "I could not afford to build a house therefore, I sold my plot for Rs100,000 a few years ago," said the allottee. When contacted by the Express Tribune, Irfan Abro, in-charge of the project, confirmed that very few people had constructed houses in the Shaheed Benazir Town Karachi. "Hence, we have informed all plot holders through an advertisement this month that they should submit the layout plan of their plots as soon as possible. Allotments will be cancelled for those who do not submit their layout plans and fail to start construction work," said Abro. Anis Qadir Mangi, Director of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell, told The Express Tribune that 6,000 houses were to be constructed in Karachi under the project. "I have submitted a proposal to the Sindh Finance Department in this regard," said Mangi.
