ISLAMABAD: A team of the United Kingdom’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials, comprising Jon Swerdlow, Mike Fell and Zana Aslam, has visited FBR (HQ) Islamabad as part of the Pilot Project on Automatic Exchange of Information.
The purpose of the visit was to assist FBR in ensuring data security and confidentiality of exchanged information under the AEOI arrangements. The team was welcomed by Dr Muhammad Iqbal, Member (Inland Revenue Policy).
Later, the HMRC team was given presentations by Mohammad Iqbal, Chief (International Taxes) on Pakistan’s progress on automatic exchange of information and further steps to be taken for successful implementation of International Standard on AEOI. It was followed by presentations by PRAL officers regarding IT/infrastructure arrangements made for AEOI.
The team visited the Data Centre and AEOI Centre established at FBR (HQ) and held meetings on IT Systems and secured transmission of information from AEOI centre to the six AEOI Zones established across the country.
The HMRC team also visited the AEOI Zone in LTU, Islamabad and held meeting with Chief Commissioner, LTU Islamabad. A brief orientation session was also conducted by Jon Swerdlow and Mohammad Iqbal for the orientation of IRS officers posted in LTU, Islamabad.
Later, a meeting was held with representatives of financial industry along with the officers of SECP, and different concerns and queries of the industry were addressed by Jon Swerdlow.
On July 20, a Seminar was also held at FBR (HQ) for creating awareness on AEOI among the FBR & SECP officers. A large number of FBR officers attended the session. The officers posted in six AEOI Zones at Karachi, Quetta, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad were also present on the occasion.
Jon Swerdlow and Mohammad Iqbal made detailed presentations introducing the concept of AEOI to the participants.
