FBR gets details of Pakistanis? immovable properties in UK

ISLAMABAD: With expectations to generate tax in the range of Rs200 to 300 billion through ongoing amnesty scheme, the FBR on Monday made a clever move by announcing that they obtained information of immovable properties owned by Pakistanis in the United Kingdom (UK) with the assistance of Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and UK Tax Authorities.“Yes, we have obtained information of thousands of Pakistanis owning immoveable properties into UK and if they did not avail this amnesty scheme then the FBR will use long arm of law and will undertake stern action against them after expiry of amnesty scheme,” top FBR sources told The News here on Monday.When asked about getting information of immoveable properties from UK counted into thousands or hundreds, the top FBR officials who were quite cautious replied that they possessed plenty of information owning properties at UK.The FBR, the sources said, made clever move as they announced obtaining information in order to force all Pakistanis owning immoveable properties at UK to avail amnesty scheme otherwise the FBR would be in position to move against them. Actually, the amnesty scheme on domestic and foreign assets fetched Rs 62 billion and 36 billion respectively so far. Keeping in view this official records, the FBR is making last ditch efforts to lure foreigners to declare their immoveable assets otherwise the FBR will be in position to move against them under law of the land after expiry of amnesty deadline on July 31, 2018.“Under confidentiality clauses, we cannot disclose exact numbers and details of obtained information from UK Tax authorities under OECD mechanism,” said Dr Iqbal, FBR’s spokesman while talking to The News here on Monday.However, the sources said that if confidentiality clauses were breached then the FBR would not be able to get any information in future so the tax authorities placed all security and foolproof arrangements to protect all such information from any leaks.Within the top management of the FBR, this issue was deliberated in details whether this information should be shared with the media or not but finally the newly appointed Chairperson in FBR Rukhsana Yasmeen took decision to release a brief statement regarding obtaining of information on immoveable properties owning by Pakistanis at UK under OECD mechanism.“It aims at making amnesty scheme on declaration of foreign assets as successful,” said the official sources. This move does not have any political purpose as many knew that politicians owned properties at UK and other parts of the world.The FBR has placed standardized software for receiving first batch of thousands of cases of Pakistanis through automatic exchange portal from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to seek financial data of assets and bank accounts abroad with effect from October 1, 2018.The FBR has placed software with the grant of UK based Department for International Development (DFID) for receiving information through automatic exchange portal from OECD forum and all required mechanism were in place to use this information against those who would not avail the amnesty scheme for declaration of foreign assets.The caretaker led government claimed last week that the public response to the scheme was positive as so far 55,225 declarations were filed in which declared value of foreign assets is around Rs577 billion and that of domestic assets is around Rs1192 billion. Declarants have paid around Rs97 billion out of which around Rs36 billion have been collected on foreign assets and 61 billion on domestic assets. In addition, $40 million has been repatriated. This response to the amnesty schemes has been unprecedented.

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