Flood surcharge in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is likely to impose a 5 per cent flood surcharge to generate funds for helping the flood victims, according to the spokesperson for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Asrar Rauf.

Speaking on a news channel on Wednesday, he said that the surcharge will be imposed on people who were paying taxes on their income. “There will be no new tax in the form of flood tax, it would 

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rather be imposed as a surcharge to help the flood victims.”

He said that the government in collaboration with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank is working on a damage need assessment survey which will help determine the exact losses in the wake of the floods.

He said the assessment report is expected in the second week of October, adding when the exact figure of damages is worked out, the government would try to recover the losses by utilising foreign donations and its own revenues in the rehabilitation process.

“If the gap remains between the estimated amount of relief and revenue, then the flood surcharge will be imposed.”

Referring to the progress made by the FBR with regard to tax collection, he said that a campaign has been launched to bring more people into the tax net. “The government will collect net taxes of more than Rs1,340 billion by the end of the current fiscal year with efforts to recover withheld taxes,” he added.

(source:tribune.com.pk)