The law, which previously allowed people to disclose only those assets that were purchased in the last five to six years, has become invalid. PHOTO: REUTERS
KARACHI: The amnesty scheme provides last chance to overseas and resident Pakistanis to declare their hidden assets by June 30, 2018 as the government will come into action against those who will try to keep their assets unknown from September 1, 2018.
“Pakistan has signed a multilateral convention with 102 countries that allows signatories to exchange information regarding people hiding assets in these countries from September 1,” Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Tariq Mehmood Pasha said while elaborating the scheme to members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Friday.
The exchange of information among these countries will reveal names of those Pakistanis who are hiding their assets. “The information will allow us to go after those who are unable to justify their assets abroad,” he said.
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“As a test case, Pakistan sent a list of 100 Pakistanis to the Dubai tax authority to seek information about their assets there. In the very first week, the tax authority provided complete information about 55 of them, including information about property size, its location and value,” he disclosed.
At the same time, several countries are legislating to scrutinise unknown assets to stop terror financing around the world. The move will pinpoint those who are not able to explain their assets globally, including Pakistanis.
He urged people to declare their assets held abroad by paying a nominal 2-5% value of the property in US dollars and bring back the assets to Pakistan. “This will be in favour of both, the country and them, and help the country to narrow down the widening current account deficit,” he said.
Improvement in the economy, like the current account balance, will help authorities to better negotiate loans with multilateral lenders at a suitable interest rate and will allow rescheduling of the loans.
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Pasha, while responding to questions from businessmen, replied that anyone could declare any asset, regardless of the time when the property was bought in the past.
“The law, which previously allowed people to disclose only those assets that were purchased in the past five to six years, has become invalid. The new law demands that people disclose all the assets, no matter when they were established,” he said.
Responding to another question, he said the current anti-money laundering laws did not allow the FBR to permit people to declare assets by using anyone else’s bank account except for their own accounts and those of their family members.
Scheme silent for non-accountholders
The amnesty scheme is silent on how the people will declare their hidden assets before June 30, 2018 when they and their immediate family members have no bank accounts abroad or a foreign currency account in any of the Pakistani banks.
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“They should better not declare their assets. Such people would only be a few hundreds as anti-money laundering laws do not allow us to allow them to declare their assets through exchange companies,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2018.
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