Pakistan offers final tax amnesty

Pakistan's military government has launched a second tax-amnesty scheme, in a final push to boost revenues and broaden the tax base.

The Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz, said that the earlier amnesty -- whereby people paid tax on their previously undeclared assets -- had elicited a highly encouraging response, bringing in nearly two-hundred-million dollars.

Mr Aziz said at least eighty-thousand of those who responded had not been on the tax roll.

This new amnesty will continue until the end of November, with tax evaders paying up to four-per-cent higher tax than under the previous scheme.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service