Government introduces ‘Meri Gari Scheme’

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to facilitate the masses, the government on Friday introduced ‘Meri Gari Scheme’, ARY News reported.

Addressing the National Assembly budget session, Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin said that the government has abolished customs and regulatory duties on vehicles up to 850cc under the scheme.

Brand new vehicles up to 800cc have also been exempted from the advance customs duty, the finance minister added.

He maintained that the government has slashed sales tax on locally manufactured cars from 17% to 12.5%. The government has also exempted Federal Excise Duty (FED) on 850cc cars, he said, adding that they will slash duty on electric cars.

Read More: Shaukat Tarin presents Budget for FY2021-22

Earlier today, amidst ruckus by the opposition, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin had unveiled the federal budget 2021-22 in the National Assembly.

He had started his budget speech by stating that the biggest challenge for the incumbent government was to bring the national economy back on the path of recovery.

Salient Features of Budget 2021-22

• No new taxes on salaried persons
• 10 percent increase in salaries and pensions of the government employees
• Rs260bn for Ehsaas Program
• Tax collection target set at Rs5829bn
• The remittances with the 25% increase, reached $29 bn in FY2020.
• GDP growth target has been set at 4.8%
• Development budget has been increased from Rs630bn to Rs900bn
  4 to 6 million families will be given loans of upto Rs500,000
• Rs57 billion have been fixed for the first phase of the Dasu Hyder Project.
• Rs23 billion reserved for Diamir Bhasha Dam.
• Rs6 billion earmarked for Mohmand Dam and Rs 14 billion have been proposed for Neelam Jhelum Project.
• Rs100 billion for the development of underprivileged areas
• Rs30 billion earmarked for health, Rs 44 billion for higher education, Rs16 billion for sustainable growth
• Rs601 billion for the development of South Balochistan through 199 uplift projects
• US$1.1 billion would be spent on the purchase of COVID-19 vaccine. 100 million people to be vaccinated by June 2022.
• Rs20 billion have been reserved for PIA and Rs16bn for the Pakistan Steel Mills in the budget.
• Rs98 billion for Karachi Transformation Plan from PSDP and Rs 125 billion from Supreme Court fund.
• Rs9.3 billion for ML-1 project and Rs12 billion allocated for Hyderabad-Sukkur transmission line.
• Provincial share in the federally collected taxes to stand at Rs3,411 billion. Provinces share in NFC increased, to receive extra Rs707bn.
• Rs14 bn allocated for Billion Tree Tsunami project.
• HEC to get Rs66 billion besides an allocation of Rs44 billion for uplift projects
• Rs 5 billion allocated for fresh local bodies election
• Rs5 billion earmarked for holding fresh census in the country
• The withholding taxes on mobile services lowered from 12.5 percent to 10 percent
• ‘Meri Gari scheme’ launched. Custom, regulatory duty abolished from 800CC vehicles. Vehicles having old models and manufacturing dates exempted from advance custom duty.
• Telecom sector gets status of industry. 10-year tax exemption for special technology zone authority
• Custom duty from vaccine and medicines of livestock abolished
• Tariff exemptions on some ingredients of poultry feed
• Sugar included in third schedule of sales tax act, helping in the elimination of artificial hike in prices of the commodity
• Federal Excise Duty on telecommunication reduced from 17 percent to 16 percent besides imposing FED on telephone calls and using internet for over three minutes. The FED is also imposed on mobile messaging.
• Tax exemption on paper used for Quran publication, auto-disable syringe and oxygen cylinders
• Exemption announced on payments through bank cards for purchases besides elimination of FED on electric vehicles, completely knocked down (CKD) parts and kits.