ISLAMABAD – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in Supplementary FinanceAmendment Bill 2019 has proposed to extend the scope of Section 123 of theIncome Tax Ordinance for discovery of undeclared offshore assets.
A press release issued by FBR here on Friday said that this measure hasbeen introduced in addition to measures already available in Income Taxlaws, Anti-Money Laundering Act, FIA and NAB laws and, in no way, precludesor overlaps the jurisdiction of such laws and institutions.
It said that FBR enjoys powers to raise immediate demand and effectrecovery on provisional basis in case of government confiscated localassets under Section 123 of the Income Tax Ordinance.
The scope of this section is proposed to be extended to discovery ofundeclared offshore assets through the Supplementary Finance Amendment Bill2019. Now the demand and recovery of tax on such persons can be executedimmediately after receipt of information in suitable cases.
The measure is necessary to enable FBR to recover tax provisionally beforethe money moves out of bank accounts and the regular proceedings, whichtake about a year or two, follow.
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It further said that it can also request assistance in recovery of suchtaxes from foreign jurisdictions wherever it has bilateral and multilateralagreements. This will ensure that FBR can request freeze of offshoreaccounts to other countries by conveying demand to such countries.
FBR is already in possession of information of bank accounts of Pakistanisfrom 26 countries and this provision will enable FBR to move swiftly in thedirection of taxing people involved in holding of offshore assets.
