KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to appoint foreign experts to conduct tax auditing and eliminate evasion.
The FBR has authorised the Commissioner Inland Revenue to call for record and conduct audit of taxpayers and to set up a panel of auditors for conducting specialised audit, including forensic audit, said an official at Regional Tax Office, Karachi.
The official said the government added the provisions into the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 through Finance Act 2018. Under the new amendment into the ordinance, a tax audit expert of an international tax organisation or a tax authority outside Pakistan can be deployed under an audit assistance program.
The individual will only be included as a member in the special audit panel if an agreement of confidentiality has been entered between the board and individual, international tax organisation or a tax authority, according to the amendment. A tax official said the amendment was made in the wake of exchange of information under the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and rising complexity of audit in various sectors, including telecom and banking. On September 14, 2016, Pakistan became the 104th economy to join the most powerful multilateral instrument against offshore tax evasion and avoidance. OECD member countries are bound to exchange financial data of non-residents to curb tax evasion.
