ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that a noose has been tightened around tax evaders and corrupt people after receiving the membership of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and termed it powerful treaty to weed out tax evasion
He was addressing a seminar on “Multilateral convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters,” arranged by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to share the knowledge and expertise of relevant stakeholders about the OECD convention.
Amendments will be bring to tax laws in order to take actions against advisor companies and facilitators involved in leading the corporate sector towards ‘tax heavens’ or offshore companies, Dar expressed, adding that changing in law with regard to foreign transactions were also need of the hour.
He also expressed willingness to sign OECD convention on anti-bribery with 40 countries that will help in eliminating bribe, corruption, commission and kickbacks in mega projects; adding that application has been moved to sign the treaty.
The minister said that economy should be decoupled with politics as aggressive politics would be causing loss to the national economy.
The purpose of OECD membership is not to harass the businessmen, as they are playing vital role in enhancing the revenue collections of the country, he said, adding that treaty with OECD will be more beneficial than bilateral agreement between Pakistan and Switzerland.
He said that foreign exchange reserves increased considerably and recorded at highest level of $ 23.4 billion as compared to the lowest reserves of 2013, adding, “We have enough reserves to pay import bills of more than five months.
The finance minister also hailed the efforts of FBR Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan and Inland Revenue-Operations Member Dr Muhammad Irshad for getting the OECD membership, which took around 34 months to be realised. He also hoped that the FBR would achieve the revenue targets of running fiscal year 2016-17.
Advisor to PM on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan, FBR Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan, Tax Reforms Commission Chairman Massod Naqvi, Pakistan Tax Bar Prsident Mohsin Nadeem, International Taxes Chief Muhammad Iqbal and representative of State Bank of Pakistan also addressed the semina.
IR-Operations Member Dr Irshad, Administration Member Muhammad Majid Qureshi, Customs Member Nasir Masroor Ahmad, IR Intelligence and Investigation Director General Khawaja Tanveer Ahmad, FBR Spokesperson Muhammad Iqbal, IR-Operations Chief Yousaf Haider Sheik, FPCCI President Abdur Rauf Alam and other trade bodies participated in the seminar.
Speaking on the occasion Special Assistant to PM on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan said, “This is reality that noose is tightening around the tax evaders,” adding that government was friendly to business community, but tax evader will have to bear full weight of law.
He said that Federal Investigation Agency has a status of investigation agency under Anti-Money Laundering Act.
FBR Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan said that most of the tax heaven countries were member of the OECD, but Panama and Bhamas had not yet sign the treaty, adding that various countries were putting pressure on them in this regard.
OECD membership will be used for broadening tax base and increasing the tax collections, the chairman said, adding that this platform will be proved milestone in saving the financial resources.
TRC Chairman Masood Naqvi said that revenue collection would be enhanced to a satisfactory level after having access to bank accounts held by Pakistanis in foreign countries under OECD membership. The use of valid information will be important to promote tax culture in country, he added.
International Taxes Chief Muhammad Iqbal said that FBR could not attain this level without having the support of commercial banks and financial organisations. He added that there will be automatic information of exchange with member countries of OECD after the convention become operational. The FBR will get information about banks accounts of Pakistani in OECD member states through IT system.
