{"id":3320,"date":"2025-06-18T14:39:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T09:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2025-06-18T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T09:40:10","slug":"lawmakers-reject-solar-panel-tax-push-for-small-car-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2025\/06\/18\/lawmakers-reject-solar-panel-tax-push-for-small-car-relief","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Reject Solar Panel Tax, Push for Small Car Relief"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ISLAMABAD: In a rare display of bipartisan agreement, parliamentary committees on Tuesday unanimously rejected the proposed 18% sales tax on imported solar panels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Finance and Revenue reviewed the Finance Bill 2025-26 clause by clause and recommended scrapping the solar panel tax.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers argued that since solar panels are not produced locally, the tax would only increase electricity costs and limit access to affordable renewable energy.<\/p>\n

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had defended the tax as necessary to protect domestic manufacturers, but committee members questioned this given the absence of local production.<\/p>\n

Members also raised concerns about recent dumping of imported solar equipment ahead of the proposed tax hike, which could harm the market.<\/p>\n

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Focus on Small Cars and Tax Enforcement Debate<\/h3>\n

The committees also expressed concerns over the proposed increase of GST from 12% to 18% on small vehicles, including 850cc cars, calling it unfair to low-income groups.<\/p>\n

Proposals were made to reduce the tax to around 14-15% to ease the burden on consumers.
In contrast, a sales tax exemption was approved for aircraft imports linked to the PIA privatization plan.<\/p>\n

A heated debate unfolded around new tax fraud enforcement measures. Some lawmakers criticized the FBR\u2019s aggressive tactics, likening them to \u201cmartial law-style\u201d regulations, while the FBR chief defended the necessity of these powers under a democratic government.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the government plans to regulate iron scrap imports to prevent commercial manipulation and calls for clearer rules on taxation of digital services.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s rapid growth in solar power generation remains a key context for these discussions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: In a rare display of bipartisan agreement, parliamentary committees on Tuesday unanimously rejected the proposed 18% sales tax on imported solar panels. The Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Finance and Revenue reviewed the Finance Bill 2025-26 clause by clause and recommended scrapping the solar panel tax. Lawmakers argued that since solar panels …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1350,1647,1646],"class_list":["post-3320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-auto","tag-budget2025","tag-renewableenergy","tag-solartax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3322,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions\/3322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}