ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue has refuted the allegations of ‘fixing’ tax record of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and his family members by two of its senior officers.
The allegations were levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan during a post mid-night political rally in the capital on Sunday. The allegations are strongly denied as being mere speculative and unsubstantiated, the revenue authority said in a statement, issued on Tuesday.
FBR considers the tax record of all taxpayers as a sacred trust and under section 216 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, it cannot be shared with unauthorised persons, the statement said, adding that the FBR has foolproof automated processes for record maintenance and updation.
“No individual can alter, edit or modify the record except as provided under the law and standard operating procedures. Record is stored in secure database and any access to the same is automatically recorded by the system. There is thus no question of tampering with the record in any manner whatsoever.”
The FBR said that the allegations are totally false and baseless and constitute an attempt to bring two very competent, honest and senior officers of FBR enjoying impeccable reputation of integrity and professional competence to disrepute and can demoralise and discourage the employees of FBR who had just recently been successful in making an unprecedented accomplishment of surpassing a massive collection target of Rs 3104 billion during financial year 2015-16.
The FBR expects that while issuing such statements our political leaders would consider the adverse impact such statements have on the individual’s reputation in the society and the morale of national institutions, the statement added.
