ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan has said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will not open those Panama cases in which transactions have taken place more than five years ago due to limitations imposed under the law.
He said that the Supreme Court’s decision not to include the FBR in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was a good sign as it showed the board has already completed its work. He insisted that the FBR exclusion from the JIT “was not the mistrust” on the board.
Khan gave the statement a day after the Supreme Court (SC) questioned the efficiency of FBR in pursuing people who had been named in the Panama leaks in April last year.
In its Panamagate verdict, the SC said the FBR half-heartedly issued some notices six months after the information came into public domain, which speaks volumes about the lethargy, carelessness and inefficiency displayed by the premium tax and financial watchdog of the country.
The names of about 400 Pakistanis had surfaced in Panama and Bahama leaks who owned offshore companies in infamous tax heavens. No meaningful action could be taken against these people, except serving them initial tax notices. Owning an offshore company is legal but it is presumed that most of those people setup offshore companies to make assets by evading taxes and hiding their real incomes.
