Budget 2024-25: Govt considers proposal to withdraw tax waivers for the rich
The government is expected to revoke tax concessions that disproportionately benefit high-earning individuals over the middle-class workforce, Dawn learned on Monday. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the government to treat salaried employees’ incomes similarly to that of individuals (non-salaried) as personal income. However, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) disagrees and believes that both incomes cannot be considered equally. If salary and non-salary incomes are deemed personal incomes under the IMF’s direction, the tax burden on the salaried class will increase significantly. The revenue measures devised thus far are Rs500 billion for the budget 2024-25. However, the actual quantum of revenue measures will be agreed upon after receiving the IMF’s final projections about the revenue collection target. Unlike the traditional practice of working at the FBR headquarters, the Ministry of Finance does all of the computations for tax recommendations.