Dar’s pre-2007 tax record missing, says FBR

Board insists it has provided all available record to JIT

ISLAMABAD: Although the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) stated on Friday that its database did not have Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s pre-2007 tax record, the board insisted it had provided all ‘available record’ to Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

Sources in the FBR confided to The Express Tribune that Ishaq Dar’s tax record, particularly for tax years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 was missing. The finance minister is in direct control of the FBR.

On Thursday, JIT Chief Wajid Zia informed the Supreme Court that the FBR was not providing full record of wealth statements filed by the ruling family.



The sources said that Ishaq Dar’s record might be missing because they were in custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or simply stolen from the FBR. Dar remained in NAB custody after the October 1999 military coup.

The Musharraf regime had prepared a money laundering reference against PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in 2000 on the basis of a statement recorded by Ishaq Dar.

According to the handwritten statement filed by Senator Dar on April 25, 2000, the Sharif brothers used the Hudaibya Paper Mills as a cover for money-laundering during late 1990s.



Without specifying the exact period, FBR officials said that for some years, Ishaq Dar remained a non-resident Pakistani for tax purposes. The Income Tax Ordinance of 2001 treated any citizen as a non-resident Pakistani if he stays abroad for more than 182 days during a tax year.

After being released from NAB custody, Dar went abroad and stayed there for a few years.

Ishaq Dar’s tax record was in the custody of Regional Tax Office-Lahore, which was recently renamed Corporate RTO Lahore.



“The Corporate RTO was looking into the matter of Ishaq Dar’s pre-2007 tax record, but no formal inquiry is being launched” to ascertain the reasons for the missing record, said a senior official of Corporate RTO-Lahore of FBR, insisting that the FBR was trying to retrieve the record.

Syed Nadeem Hussain Rizvi, the Chief Commissioner of Corporate RTO-Lahore, was contacted but he refused to speak on the matter.

The sources said that after the Panama Papers surfaced in April last year, the FBR brought the ruling family’s records from its Lahore office to headquarters.



But the then Chief Commissioner RTO, Tasneem Rehman, had kept the original record and provided only the photocopies.

FBR response

The FBR was not hiding any record from the JIT and all available record was handed over to the JIT, said Chairman FBR Dr Mohammad Irshad.

He said that FBR had provided JIT tax record dating back to 1982 so it was incorrect to say that the FBR was not cooperating with either the Supreme Court or the JIT.

The Chairman FBR said that the record of just one taxpayer was missing, but he did not belong to the ruling family. Dr Irshad did not elaborate.

He said that FBR had not provided JIT just the record which it did not have.



He said that there were years when the requirement to file wealth statements had been abolished. Similarly, non-resident Pakistanis were also not required to file income tax returns, said Dr Irshad.

Dr Irshad disclosed that some of the tax record had been weeded out during the 2004 reforms process.

What experts say?

Citing FBR’s Officer Manual for Record Maintenance, Dr Ikramul Haq, a tax practitioner and Supreme Court lawyer, said that permanently keeping the income tax returns and assessment orders was mandatory.

He said that although there were no limitations on record keeping, the manual prescribed permanently retaining returns and assessment orders while suggesting other record to be kept for 10 years.

He said that the record needed to be maintained as long as court cases were not settled.