What account holders’ info banks will share with FBR

KARACHI: The banks have agreed to share details of their account holders with the tax authorities in a deal inked this week to check suspected undocumented money in the banking channels, sources told The News.

An agreement was reached in a meeting between Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Syed Shabbar Zaidi and chief executives of commercial banks on November 27, 2019 at the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) here.

“It would enable the tax department to access real-time information of transactions made through the banking system,” a source said.

Under Section 165A, the banks are responsible to provide details of financial transactions made by their account holders to the FBR. Sources said the FBR chairman, at the meeting, said Section 165A was amended in 2014, 2018 and recently through Supplementary Finance Amendment Act, 2019 on PBA’s recommendations.

Those details include a list of persons making cash withdrawal of Rs50,000/day or over Rs1 million/ month; deposits of Rs10 million/ month; credit card payment of Rs250,000/ month; and details of persons receiving profit on debt above Rs500,000/ year.

It was worth noting that the government had also made arrangements to streamline laws to access bank deposits for identifying financial transactions.

The prime minister in a meeting held last month directed the ministry of law and justice and the State Bank of Pakistan to propose necessary amendments in bank laws and regulations for ensuring real-time data sharing of financial transactions with the FBR.