A parliamentary panel on Wednesday directed the finance secretary to carry a gathering with all stakeholders to probe why PayPal isn’t operating in Pakistan.
The panel also recommended that there should be an exemption in custom taxes on the import of specially designed mobile phones for visually impaired people.
A meeting of the Senate Committee on Finance Revenue and Economic Affairs was held at the Parliament House with Senator Talha Mahmood within the chair where the difficulty was discussed. People are unable to require full advantage of Amazon because PayPal doesn’t operate in Pakistan, committee members acknowledged.
The committee took up a petition filed by a citizen Mohammad Bilal Mukhtar, who had requested the Senate Secretariat to seem into the difficulty.
“We want PayPal in Pakistan as there are many people that are working as freelancers and that we face issues regarding payment and PayPal is that the most convenient thanks to transferring or receive funds from freelancing websites and clients,” the petitioner stated. His petition was mentioned to the senate committee by the Senate Secretariat.
Senate body takes up petition, urges relevant authorities to seem into the matter
During the board meeting, a representative of the depository financial institution of Pakistan said that there’s no restriction by depository financial institution of Pakistan on PayPal. consistent with a document of the Finance Division, presented before the committee PayPal may be a private company with a presence in various countries.
“However, PayPal has not approached depository financial institution of Pakistan (SBP) for an equivalent. getting into a specific market may be a business decision and SBP is of the view that there’s no restriction on entry/operations of any international payment gateway in Pakistan subject to compliance of related exchange regulations,” read the document.
Committee members said that PayPal is working in many small countries that have a population less than that of Pakistan, but it’s surprising that they’re not operating in Pakistan – a rustic with an over 220 million population.
The committee tasked Finance Secretary Yusuf Khan to carry meetings with all stakeholders to seek out out why PayPal and e-commerce giant Amazon isn’t operating within the country and sought a report after a month. In May this year, Amazon had added Pakistan to its seller’s list however thanks to the non-availability of PayPal, people are unable to properly enjoy the power.
The committee also discussed another public petition, seeking exemption of customs on mobile phones for visually impaired people.
Representatives of the Customs Wing told committee members that the difficulty is being examined in consultation with the Ministry of Health. Members unanimously supported the petition. The committee chairman directed representatives of the Ministry of Commerce and Health to attend the subsequent meetings so as to brief the committee about the difficulty.
Earlier, a senior officer of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) briefed the committee about tax notices issued during the last three years. The committee members including Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Musadik Malik, Farooq H. Naek, et al. said that FBR during the last three years issued many notices, but it couldn’t collect tax in accordance with the number of notices issued.
The committee members, including Federal Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati, said those officials of FBR who issue false notices to people also as tax defaulters should tend stern punishment. In his emotional remarks, the railway’s minister said that FBR officials, who issue false notices and tax defaulters should be hanged.
The committee was also informed that there’s leakage of Rs1,350 billion tax as people submitted incomplete information in their returns and FBR has been performing on collecting this amount, but thanks to litigation and other issues, this has been delayed. The committee said that the entire revenue is around Rs4,000 billion and when FBR will collect the said Rs1,350 billion, it’ll be an enormous booster for the country’s economy.
