Senate Body Takes Notice of FBR’s Abuse of Power

A parliamentary committee on Thursday noted that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is harassing taxpayers by misusing Anti-Money Laundering Act.

During a meeting of Senate standing committee on finance, which was held on Thursday, FBR Intelligence and Investigation (IR) Director General Shahid Muhammad rejected the allegation of misusing the law, saying that his organisation has received over 200 STRs, and out of which only three cases were probed completely so far.

On the agenda item of the business community that anti-money laundering (AML) law was being misused against them, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) stated since 2010, when anti-money laundering law was enforced, 210 suspicious transaction reports were forwarded to them by the Financial Management Unit (FMU) for probe against 332 individuals.

He claimed that in the 210 reports, 332 individuals were involved. Among those allegedly involved in money laundering, 227 were NTN holders, while the rest of 105 were non-NTN holders.

All the transactions involving Rs 2 million and above from one bank accounts are taken as STR and chosen for investigation to ascertain whether or not it was money laundering case.

On the issue of existence of Competition Commission of Pakistan challenged by the business community in court of law, Attorney General for Pakistan suggested that the committee needs to request to the court that matters related to public importance and taxes should be decided on a priority basis. However, the committee said that instead of making a broad request, the committee would make a request specific to the CC

According to him, in the case of existing taxpayers, the bank statement/information provided by the FMU are thoroughly probed and reconciled with their declarations, and if found reconciled, the proceedings are dropped.

While exporters have accused Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of misusing the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law.

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwlla, has discussed the alleged misuse of Anti-Money Laundering Act to harass taxpayers.