ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed that a treaty has been signed with the Swiss authorities to gain access to information regarding the bank accounts of Pakistani citizens in that country.
Responding to a question during the question hour in Upper House of Parliament, Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar said the treaty signed earlier by the previous government in 2013 was incomplete in some respects as it did not give information of account holders.
The Minister of State added that excluding Switzerland information from twenty-nine countries have started coming. He expressed the hope that process of receiving data from Switzerland will begin next month.
The Minister of State said that all territories where Pakistani citizens may stash their funds are in FBR’s focus. He said government is taking all possible measures to obtain information about the Pakistani nationals’ assets in other countries including money kept in Swiss Banks for the application of tax laws.
Hammad Azhar said that upon receipt of actionable tax information about Pakistani tax-resident persons, if the funds remitted out are found to be unexplained, tax demand could be raised that is recoverable against the assets located in Switzerland under the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
