The caretaker government has postponed the promulgation of a Finance Amendment Ordinance 2023 for the documentation of the economy.
Highly placed officials told ProPakistani that the present government was drafting an ordinance for making it mandatory for all institutions and departments at federal and provincial levels to integrate their data on a regular basis to register new filers of income tax returns.
The time-bound ordinance for only a 120-day period has no legal backing, the officials maintained.
Top government officials explained that under Article 89 of the Constitution, the President can also promulgate an Ordinance on the matters covered under a money bill. However, every Ordinance dealing with matters falling under the purview of a money bill before the National Assembly and stands repealed automatically after a period of 120 days if not passed by the Assembly.
The National Assembly through a resolution can also extend the period of validity of the Ordinance for a further period of 120 days.
Since the National Assembly is not in existence at the moment therefore a money bill cannot be introduced in the assembly.
The President can admittedly issue an Ordinance making the changes in law, but according to the provisions of Article 89, it will lapse after a period of 120 days, as the National Assembly that can pass the Ordinance or extend its validity is not in existence.
The caretaker government has discovered that nearly 126 departments and institutions at the federal and provincial levels are not sharing their data with the FBR in a regular and desirable format. This situation makes it impossible to convert the data into taxability.
To capture all kinds of financial transactions to broaden the narrow tax base, the government was considering promulgating an ordinance.
The FBR identified the departments that are not sharing their data on a regular basis. It raises the need for binding all departments through a Presidential Ordinance for getting the data. The caretakers are very tight-lipped on this issue in order to avoid any controversy over this issue.
The Ministry of Information Technology will assist the FBR to develop an integrated data portal by integrating it with all other departments.
However, the FBR will face the challenge of converting data into taxable information because past efforts in this regard have been in vain.
