ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will officially be able to start sharing financial information about bank accounts of non-residents with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations from September this year after installation of hardware and software at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and other units.
A team of OECD officials had recently paid a visit to FBR for undertaking a detailed review and after their clearance, the decision for automatic exchange of information was taken.
Following hectic efforts to comply with OECD convention and the passing of several laws in previous two years, the country has gained membership into the Peer Review Group (PRG) of the Global Forum for 2018-2020.
Pakistan joins the PRG group, comprising of thirty countries which have the authority to review, negotiate and supervise policy of automatic exchange of information of all the member nations.
In May, the FBR had received a formal appreciation letter for having concluded the compliance in such a short period by an installation of the whole setup, along with hardware and software.
Following upon the agreed plan, 56 countries have expressed willingness and officially issued a requisite requirement for automatic exchange of information with Pakistan.
From September this year, the country in the first phase will share information with 35 nations. From September 2018, another 20 nations would be included in this list of sharing of information.
And in 2020, only one country will get included in this list for the exchange of information.
Majority of the 48 members have not notified about their intention to sharing of information whereas some member countries have refused to share information with Pakistan.
As per the agreement, data is required to be exchanged for non-residents opening bank accounts in Pakistan between July-December 2017. Also, closed bank accounts information in each calendar year would get shared with member countries.
Pakistan had signed Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in September 2016, which provided a channel for sharing data regarding offshore account between the signatory countries. 104 countries are a signatory to this convention.
