Pakistan to forgive tax cheaters if black money is invested in housing projects

Pakistan tax officials will look the other way if tax evaders invest their illicit wealth in housing projected initiated by Imran Khan government. 

According to the Federal Board of Revenue, if people with black money invest in constuction projects like the Pakistan government's Naya Pakistan Housing Program by December 31, they will be forgiven by tax authorities. 

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"There is all this money with developers who have been doing tax evasion and small scale projects," Zaigham Rizvi, member of Naya Pakistan Housing Program taskforce, in an interview said, reports Bloomberg. 

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"I support the decision to bring funds from the dark economy into the tangible economy. Construction will generate some sort of tax directly or indirectly if that money is put through the value added system."

Last financial year, Pakistan economy shrank for the first time in seven decades and situation worsened with the arrival of the pandemic. 

The Pakistani PM is trying to bring into the system the illegal money that has a value as high as about 56 per cent of the nation's economy. 

This is not the first time Pakistan administration has tried to lure the tax cheats and have been brought such schemes at least once by four earlier governments, however, none of them was able to bring back any major sum of black money into the system.