Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan said on Wednesday the body cannot take any legal actions against the Pakistanis named in Panama Papers leaks under existing laws.
“We have limitations of laws … and will ask [the government] for revamping [of laws] in this budget,” he told inquisitive members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
His statement comes in the wake of political storm that was triggered in the country after opposition parties protested over inaction of concerned authorities.
The government has been under tremendous pressure since the Panama Papers revealed the names of around 220 Pakistanis, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s immediate family members, keeping offshore accounts in international tax havens.
Although Khan has pointed finger at stumbling blocks for the FBR, he did not specify which particular law or provision had stopped them from taking action on its own.
It was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shafqat Mehmood who invited attention of the FBR chairman over the leaks and first reaction of the latter was to point out in return that “Panama Papers is not on the agenda [of PAC meeting]”.
But Mehmood seemed resolute enough to get some answers from the chairman and for that matter he put a hypothetical situation before him and asked: “Do you wait for orders or take action on your own when you [FBR] learn about a case of tax evasion through media reports or any other source?”
“We take action on our own,” replied the chairman.
When asked if he has taken any action against a legion of Pakistanis named for having offshore companies, the FBR chairman did not give a direct answer and said FBR had not taken any action but “I can assure you that we are doing our homework”.
After repeated questions, Khan explained ‘homework’ as looking into their [those named in Panama Papers] declarations.
They can not do anything about Panama Leaks – the greatest corruption and tax-avoiding scandal in the history of the country, they can not expand the Tax-net, they can not stop flight of foreign currency, can not act against the tax-avoiding Parliamentarians ! An english daily of Lahore wrote in it's Editorial that FBR is the biggest hurdle in expanding the tax-net in collaboration with the Rich Mafia of the country. When you have the will- you have the way.
I am quite reluctant to write comments because yesterday six of my comments were rejected by the site administrator in a row !
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