ISLAMABAD - Ittehad-i-Tanzeem-i-Madaris, a conglomeration of religious seminaries belonging to various sects, demanded of the government to immediately withdraw withholding tax on the bank accounts of religious seminaries and termed such a levy on charity money un-Islamic in nature.
In a letter addressed to the federal finance minister, the leaders of Ittehad-i-Tanzeem-i-Madris demanded not only declaring the accounts of religious seminaries, mosques and its affiliated bodies exempted from withholding tax but also transfer back the levy imposed on these accounts handling since July last.
It was further stated in the letter that failing in undoing the withholding tax would be repugnant to Islamic injunction as no tax could be levied on the money given in charity.
The letter issued with the signatures of Madaris leaders Maulana Saleem Ullah Khan, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, Maulana Hanif Jalunderi, Maulana Abdul Malik and others, further pointed out that it was for the first time in the country’s history that the charity money given to seminaries, mosques and its other affiliated bodies were brought into the tax net, which is unjust and un-Islamic act on part of the government.
The seminaries leaders demanded of the federal finance minister to immediately pass orders of granting exemption to seminaries, mosques from withholding tax while the tax so far deducted from their bank transactions should be returned back to their accounts.
It was further pointed out that even in non-Muslim states, including United Kingdom, were not imposing any tax on religious seminaries and other welfare bodies running on charity money while in Pakistan the government has imposed such a tax.
In budget for financial year 2015-16, the government has imposed withholding tax on all bank transactions without granting any relief and exemption to anyone and the religious seminaries, mosques and other welfare organisations completely running on charity money also came under the axe.