Opposition parties in the National Assembly rejected on Monday the government’s tax amnesty scheme and termed it discriminatory and useless.
The decision was taken at a joint meeting of opposition parties presided over by Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah.
In a statement issued by the opposition leader’s office, Mr Shah said that in the past too such amnesty schemes had been announced, but to no avail.
He asked the government to inform the opposition about the results and fate of the previous five such schemes.
Soon after announcement of the amnesty scheme in the form of a bill in the National Assembly on Friday, the PTI had constituted a committee to review it and to contact other opposition parties to develop a consensus on the issue.
The bill sought a four-year tax amnesty scheme that proposes to allow traders to whiten their undeclared profits and gains by paying a nominal tax. The bill aimed at ending a deadlock over the issue of withholding tax on banking transactions between the Federal Board of Revenue.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Dr Shireen Mazari, Dr Arif Alvi and Asad Umar of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Rashid Godil of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Sahibzada Tariqullah of the Jamaat-i-Islami attended the meeting at the Parliament House.
The meeting decided that the opposition would ask the government for a briefing in parliament on the current tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
