The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance on Saturday approved a series of key amendments to the Finance Bill 2025, including a proposal to increase the daily cash withdrawal limit for non-filers from Rs50,000 to Rs75,000 and raise the corresponding withholding tax from 0.6 per cent to 0.8pc.
The meeting, chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar, held a clause-by-clause review of income tax proposals and gave the nod to several changes aimed at enhancing tax collection and documentation of the economy.
One of the major revisions included a reduction in income tax for salaried individuals. For those earning between Rs600,000 and Rs1.2 million annually, the rate has been reduced from 2.5pc to 1pc, a move expected to benefit low-to-middle income earners.
The committee also approved a 0.5pc reduction in the super tax imposed on the corporate sector, signalling a slight relief for businesses amid ongoing inflationary pressures.
Tax exemptions on deposits in SCRA accounts held for less than six months have been scrapped, while a 2pc withholding tax has been proposed on cash-on-delivery (COD) transactions — a measure aimed at expanding the tax net on online shopping.
Furthermore, the committee backed the proposal to impose taxes on e-commerce businesses, formalising a previously less-regulated sector.
To tighten the monitoring of financial activity, the committee approved a proposal enabling the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to access data on individuals making banking transactions beyond their declared income. FBR Chairman Rashid Mehmood Langrial informed the committee that a computerised algorithm will identify high-value transactions exceeding certain thresholds. “A red flag will be issued for individuals conducting large transactions through current accounts,” he added.
The FBR will also deploy staff to business premises for surveillance purposes to improve compliance. However, a controversial proposal to penalise online marketplaces for sales made to unregistered individuals was rejected by the committee.
At the same time, tax exemption has been retained for online sales of up to Rs5 million annually, offering some relief to small-scale online retailers.
