The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) will seek enough powers from the government to investigate money laundering cases. Sources told Business Recorder on Thursday that the proposed Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) law has specifically incorporated a new provision to deal with illegal transfer of funds mainly used for financing of terrorist activities.
It has been proposed to empower the tax officials to check money laundering through legal backing and assistance of relevant government departments/agencies. According to the proposed law, the FBR would directly investigate or co-ordinate inquiry into organised tax evasion, tax fraud, money laundering and financial crimes in close liaison with empowered agencies under any Pakistani law.
Once the FBR law was approved by the federal cabinet, the above said provision would enable the CBR to exclusively deal with money laundering for which a specific law is under preparation.
The board would move a summary to the federal cabinet for obtaining legal backing for converting tax agency into an autonomous organisation prior to budget 2007-2008. Federal board would be empowered to independently determine its own policies for recruitment, salaries, investment and operational methodology. It would be empowered to prepare its own annual budget and submit its report about the activities to the President every year.
The law would allow the CBR to adopt modern effective tax administration methods, information technology systems and policies to consolidate self-assessment, minimise interaction between taxpayers/collectors, widen tax-base and proper enforcement of penalties, sources added.
Comments
Comments are closed.