ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Mohammad Irshad has rejected the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) allegations that it was not providing complete record related to the Panama Papers case.
“We have given all the available tax record to the JIT and never withheld any record,” said Dr Irshad. He claimed the bureau has provided the tax record of the Sharif family since 1980 onwards.
“Whatever documents were asked for, have been provided,” he said talking to the media along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan.
He said he did not understand which record has not been given to the JIT, adding at the same time that the JIT was asking for wealth statement of a year, which was not available.
The investigation team headed by Wajid Zia complained to the Supreme Court on Thursday that the FBR was not providing the record of some key persons despite repeated requests.
Wajid Zia informed the apex court that the FBR was not providing the record of the people who were at the helm of the affairs. He said that they have written three letters to the FBR.
Earlier, addressing a function to formally launch a handbook and a documentary on the recently-concluded budget 2017-18 exercise, Haroon Akhtar said that the past year remained quite challenging for the FBR in terms of revenue collection. But, he said, there are substantial signs that the revenue collection target would be achieved by the FBR despite a number of relief measures and subsidies granted to the export sectors and agriculture.
He further said there were visible signs of an accumulative growth of 75 percent in revenue generation over the last four years, despite declining inflation and massive tax relief measures announced by the government for different sectors.
Haroon said the tax proposals incorporated in the recently-approved Finance Bill had been drawn up after threadbare discussions and lengthy sessions with members and office-bearers of all leading chambers, commerce, and industry, trade bodies as well as tax bar associations of the country.
The adviser said that the tax proposals finally adopted were realistic and pointed to the sincerity of the socio-economic agenda of the government.
FBR chief Irshad lauded the FATE Wing team for developing a very informative documentary which explained and highlighted the important role played by FBR and its officers in the budget-making process.
