FBR declines Panama case-related info

Cites secrecy clause to avoid sharing vital details

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue refused to cooperate with a parliamentary panel that sought to probe allegations of tampering tax record of the ruling family and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar by board officials before it was handed over to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

The FBR invoked a secrecy clause of the Income Tax Ordinance of 2001, in a bid to avoid sharing of information relating to the Panama case with the Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue.

“Section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 allows us to give such information to a court of law”, Tariq Pasha, the Chairman of FBR, told the Senate panel. Pasha said that the information about taxpayers’ tax record could not be provided to the committee.



But, the chairman of the committee, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, said that Parliament was supreme and could seek information for investigation.

He said that this information was already in the public domain and the committee was seeking it through official channels.

The Senate Secretariat had sent the agenda item regarding the probing of allegations of record tampering to be endorsed by the FBR, but it refused to do so, he said.

About half a dozen Senators had requested the standing committee to probe allegations that some FBR officials had tampered with the tax record of the ruling family before it was handed over to JIT.

“We have credible evidence that the income tax officers tampered the tax record”, said Senator Azam Swati of the PTI, one of the movers of the agenda item. However, the Senate Secretariat did not formally bring the issue on the meeting’s agenda because of the FBR’s opposition.



The FBR is the second organisation publicly accused of tampering with record to influence the Panama case. Earlier, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Zafarulhaq Hijazi was detained on allegations of record tampering.

Both departments are under the administrative control of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Most of the members of the Standing Committee believed that the standing committee should not indulge into a matter which was political in nature.

Getting such politically sensitive information may create controversies and people might seek information about the chairman of the standing committee himself, said Senator Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N.

Subsequently, members of the committee decided to seek ruling of Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani whether or not the parliamentary panel could probe the allegations against the FBR.