The government on Monday refused to share the cost of tax relief with the National Assembly (NA) standing finance committee, which will approve the new budget, but the committee chairperson said that the cost was around Rs360 billion.

“The government is in discussions with the International Monetary Fund; thus, it cannot disclose these numbers,” said Finance Secretary Imdadullah Bosal while responding to a question raised by MNA Jawed Hanif Khan.

Bosal said that any relief had to be offset by an equal amount of additional revenue and enforcement measures, in a statement that was in line with the deal with the IMF. However, Bosal said that the government had privately shared the relief cost with the standing committee’s chairman.

When Khan enquired whether the cost of relief was Rs360 billion, Naveed Qamar, the standing committee’s chairman, replied that “you were very close”. Later, Qamar said that the cost was roughly Rs360b.

The Express Tribune had reported that the government gave Rs360b in tax relief, including Rs115b for the property sector and Rs52b for the salaried class.

The finance ministry had informed the federal cabinet that the cost of reducing the withholding taxes for the property sector was Rs115b.

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The sources said that the government was still in discussions with the International Monetary Fund, which was not very comfortable about halving the tax rates on the sales and purchase of properties.

It was unprofessional on the part of the government that it was not sharing the relief cost with the legislators, remarked MNA Hina Rabbani Khar, a member of the standing committee.

The cabinet was further told that the impact of reducing the federal excise duty rates on air tickets was Rs24b, and the Rs17b was the cost of lowering the withholding tax rates on debit and credit card international transactions to 0.5%.

Minister of State for Finance Bilal Kayani said that people were circumventing the hefty taxes on business class air tickets by either upgrading their tickets after boarding the flight or by booking from abroad.

About Rs7b was the cost of abolishing the 1% capital value tax on foreign transactions, according to the government’s briefing to the cabinet last week.

Hamid Ateeq Sarwar, a member of the strategic transformation Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), said that the capital value tax had to be abolished at the demand of foreign countries and also because Pakistanis were becoming non-resident persons to avoid the tax.

Qamar sought clarity on whether the anticipated revenue losses had been adequately quantified and requested details of the government’s strategy to offset any resulting fiscal shortfall.

The committee also deliberated on relief for salaried individuals in the context of persistent inflation and rising living costs, and sought clarification on whether the proposed tax slab revisions would provide meaningful relief to middle-income groups.

Kayani said that the maximum possible relief had been extended to the salaried persons.

The chairman observed that tax relief measures must remain equitable and economically justified, while stressing the need to broaden the tax base and improve compliance. He directed the Ministry of Finance and FBR to submit detailed revenue estimates, fiscal impact assessments, and implementation plans before further consideration of the Finance Bill, 2026.

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Sarwar informed the committee that the government has also decided to abolish the requirement of paying advance income tax for exporters. He said that the move would help address the liquidity issues.

To another question, the member strategic transformation added that the government was collecting roughly Rs400b annually from the super tax, which it cannot immediately abolish. The super tax had been introduced as an emergency measure many years ago. The government has proposed in the budget to abolish the super tax on annual incomes of Rs500 million and charge 8% rate on higher incomes.

However, the super tax rate will be 10% for banks, oil and gas exploration companies and the fertiliser firms.

Sarwar said that the banks’ lending to the government had increased to 80% of their total lending after ending the advance-to-deposit ratio limits. The violation of these limits used to attract additional taxes, which the government ended, and as a result, there is hardly any money available to the private sector borrowers.

The committee was informed that the budget package comprises eleven relief measures, ten rationalisation measures, and five administrative reforms aimed at promoting economic growth, encouraging investment, enhancing documentation of the economy, improving tax compliance, and strengthening revenue collection.

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Kayani said that the government abolished the 18% sales tax on the shipping industry in light of lessons learned from the Middle East conflict. He said that there was a need to develop the local shipping industry.

But Qamar was of the view that the tax had been abolished after the National Logistic Cell took over Pakistan National Shipping Corporation.

The committee was informed that the relief package includes the abolition of taxes on contraceptives and selected women’s products.