As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairperson Imran Khan kicked off his long march to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to declare his money trail for the properties revealed in the Panama leaks, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has also woken up from a deep slumber. It took more than four months for the FBR to start issuing notices to the Pakistani residents named in the Panama papers. The announcement coincided with the anti-government protests held in Rawalpindi and Lahore. The decision to issue notices took place on Saturday, raising eyebrows as it is not usually a working day.
According to a department official, each person who has been issued notices would have 15 days to answer the questions posed by the tax department. The spokesperson added that there were several people among the 350 Pakistanis named in the Panama Papers who are non-residents and would not be issued notices. Section 176 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 empowers tax officials to issue notices to any person whenever there is any information regarding tax evasion or concealment of income to ascertain whether such claims are true. But in the case of the Panama Papers, the FBR had been reluctant to use this power. Under tax laws, the FBR is to ascertain whether offshore companies owned by Pakistanis have been formed legally or for the illegal purpose of tax evasion. If a Pakistani resident had shifted money from the country after paying tax on it and formed an offshore company in a foreign country for a legal business, it would not be considered an illegal act. In case a person has filed an income tax return, and the information matches the declared particulars, no further action will be taken. But if no record is found in the FBR database, the person will be issued a notice under Section 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 to file his/her income tax returns.
All the details and explanations that are being given by the FBR should have been given four months ago, right after the revelations following the Panama Papers. It is not about who is named in the papers or not. Being a democratic country, the department should have followed the standing operating procedure, and sent notices to the Pakistani residents mentioned in the list. Such a step could have saved Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from appearing on national TV again and again, and would have allowed the concerned authority to look into the affairs instead of letting it become a political tool for opposition political parties.
