Leakage of Bajwa’s tax record: FBR extends inquiry to more officers to locate IP addresses

LAHORE: After suspending two deputy commissioners over former army chief Bajwa’s tax record leakage, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the scope of inquiry to the level of income tax inspectors and auditors to locate internet protocol (IP) addresses used to access the tax record, said sources.

According to the sources, around 50 tax inspectors and auditors from Lahore and Rawalpindi field formations have been inquired so far to determine the responsibility, followed by disciplinary action against the violators of departmental rules.

They have further told that Chairman FBR Asim Ahmed was himself conducting inquiry who was removed earlier from the office of chairman over the hacking of Board’s website.

It may be noted that the Board has suspended two deputy commissioners (DCs) from the service, one from Lahore and the other from Rawalpindi region, in connection with the leak of tax record details of outgoing army chief Bajwa.

Both of them have been made officers on special duty (OSDs) and sent to the administrative pool, they added. According to the sources, the tax record was shared in Portable Document Format (PDF), including the assessment record and other procedural documents.

They said the DC from Rawalpindi has also admitted of accessing the tax record of former army chief after finding it erroneous due to unusual growth in assets. However, he had not edited the tax record, reportedly saying that the Board should investigate as to whose IP address has been used to access the tax record through his log-in password.

It may be noted that both the income tax inspectors and auditors possess log-in password of DCs in order to access tax record for procedural purposes. A similar situation had confronted the Board when tax details of parliamentarians were made public. Later, the inquiry had found out that the log-in of a senior officer was used by one of his inspector from the Faisalabad office, possessing the log-in password.

It was followed by the policy decision by the PML-N government to make public the tax directory of parliamentarians, which continued regularly until recent past when the exercise has been abandoned discreetly. According to the sources, the Board was also considering to look into the possibility of the sharing of information from outside the FBR.

“The Board may also call the tax consultant of the former army chief to inquire about,” they said, adding that the possibility of hacking the data by some Indian hacker can also not be ruled out.

The sources said the Board may also opt for issuing child log-in password to junior staff with limited access to avoid unbridled use of parent log-in password of senior officers to carry out day to day tax procedures. The Board had also hired an Information Technology (IT) expert against a hefty salary of Rs 3.5 million per month but he resigned after surrendering to the “institutional inertia” within a year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022