ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is set to issue notices to those rich people who mentioned gifts as assets in their wealth/income statements.
During investigations conducted by FBR’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) cell in 2016, it identified around 2,785 rich individuals who had mentioned in the gift section of their income statements to be holding assets worth millions of rupees.
This probe also revealed that a sum of Rs 102 billion was allegedly money laundered by these 2,785 individuals though exchange of gifts. It is pertinent to mention here that according to Pakistan’s tax laws, gifts are exempted from taxes.
A official revealed that a couple of months ago, FBR had decided to serve notices to rich individuals asking them to provide details of their assets. He said, “All the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) across the country have now started serving notices under section 176 of the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) 2001, after receiving directions from the headquarters.”
“According to the notices, FBR has asked the respondents to provide details of the copies of gift deeds and means of donating gifts. It also asked respondents to provide the details of assets held by a donor,” he said, while adding that after receiving the required detail, FBR would be able to verify the assets.
However, the official said that initially these notices were being served to those people who have received gifts.
Among these 2,785 individuals, three tax payers have mentioned to have received gifts worth rupees one billion, eight tax payers mentioned receiving gifts worth Rs 500 million, 50 received gifts valued between Rs 200 million to Rs 500 million, while 97 persons received gifts worth Rs 100 million to Rs 200 million.
According to FBR documents, around 2,348 individuals declared to have received gifts worth Rs 10 million to Rs 50 million.
Among the people who were served with notices by the FBR, the name of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif is worth mentioning. The wealth statement submitted by the former premier mentioned that he received gifts worth Rs 1.07 billion.
