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List of top 4,000 tax evaders with SC, FIA, says FBR chief

By Jawwad Rizvi
July 17, 2018

LAHORE: Federal Board of Revenue chairperson Rukhsana Yasmeen has held the board officials responsible for the failure of the Tax Amnesty Scheme 2018, saying a list of top 4,000 tax evaders has already been submitted to the Supreme Court and FIA which can initiate action against them anytime.

“A massive crackdown operation will initiate against tax evaders after the amnesty scheme will end and no one will be spared”, she said.

She said there is no further extension to the amnesty scheme suggesting tax evaders and those who have not yet declared their all assets to avail the opportunity to whiten their money.

The FBR has so far collected Rs97 billion from 53,000 people under the amnesty scheme. However, response to extension to amnesty scheme on the demand of FBR officials has not been positive. She said the FBR had received almost 4,000 calls about the amnesty scheme and 53,000 people availed it before June 30 but after the extension only 2,000 people applied to it.

Ms. Rukhsana Yasmeen was addressing a meeting of all leading chartered accountants, Lahore and Sheikhupura Tax Bars presidents, Pakistan Tax Bar secretary-general as well as senior officers of Corporate Regional Tax Office, Regional Tax Office-II, Lahore and Large Tax Payers Unit, Lahore, here on Monday.

The meeting was focused on the Tax Amnesty Scheme 2018 and its different dimensions. A review of response of business community of Pakistan in general and province of Punjab in particular was shared with the officers.

The chairperson pointed out that though the response has been positive, it does not commensurate with the quantum of undeclared assets of business community, especially of Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Sialkot. She urged the participants to play a proactive role in creating awareness about the benefits of the scheme among the business community of these cities to enable them to declare their undeclared assets and get immunity on them for future. She reprimanded the FBR officials for poor results and commented that the officers were not going into the field to sensitize the public about the advantages and benefits of it.

She said that mostly the businessmen from Lahore and Karachi had benefitted from the amnesty scheme while those from Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Sialkot did not avail the opportunity. She said there was no positive response after the extension to the scheme despite the FBR had addressed all the issues relating to the system, dollar exchange rates etc. She said the total revenue collections from Punjab matched the half of the revenue collected from Karachi under the scheme.

Rukhsana Yasmeen disclosed that now the FBR have OECD data and complete information about the particulars of Pakistani nationals who have undeclared properties in the UK, Dubai and other countries. Besides, the FBR is also in possession of quantum of rental income earned from them. She believed that the amnesty scheme was the best in the history but the response was not encouraging. She said the world is changing now and Pakistan could not move forward without changing its approach and methods. She said imports were growing and exports declining and in such a situation the system could not sustain as country needs dollars for trade. She said exchange of financial information with other countries will increase pressure on Pakistan and the country needs to take action against tax evaders and undeclared money holders.