ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has declined to share with the upper house of the Parliament the assets’ details of the senior officers of Inland Revenue and Customs, stating that the Law Ministry has “barred the FBR to share declaration of assets and liabilities of individuals furnished to the FBR to any third party.”
“In order to secure a policy decision, the FBR solicited guidelines from Ministry of Law and Justice for sharing of declaration of assets and liabilities of FBR officers. Ministry of Law and Justice issued clarification – whereby the ministry barred FBR to share declaration of assets and liabilities of individuals furnished to FBR to any third party,” reads Dar’s written reply furnished before Senate in its session on Tuesday.
Dar’s reply came against a question from Senator Saifullah Nyazee from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Declaration of assets & liabilities: FBR sets deadline
In the Senate question hour, the PTI senator, through a written query, asked the finance minister to “state the assets declared by the officers of grade 19 to 22 presently working in Inland Revenue and Customs at the time of recruitment and the assets gained at present; indicating their assets details.”
In reply, Dar shared an office memorandum issued by the Law Ministry on September 15, 2022 wherein the ministry admitted that Section 6 of the Right of Access to Information Act (RAI 2016) provides for declaration of public record whereby certain record maintained by all public bodies is declared to be the public record.
“The same, however, is subject to the provisions of Section 7 Clause (h) thereof accords protection of record of private documents furnished to a public body either on an express or implied condition that information contained in any such documents shall not be disclosed to a third party under Section 7(h) of RAI 2016 and Section 216(1) of ITO (Income Tax Ordinance 2001) when read together,” the Law Ministry’s office memorandum stated.
There is an implied condition in Section 216(1) that declaration of assets and liabilities of an individual furnished to FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) shall not be disclosed to a third party being prohibited under Section 7(h) of RAI 2016, it added.
In another written reply to a question posed by PTI’s Mohsin Aziz, Dar disclosed that 24,214 containers were detained in one year; from July 2022 to June 2023, at Karachi seaport and other seaports of the country, and the total demurrages/port charges applicable on those containers for the said period were Rs1.042 billion.
Meanwhile, five government bills were moved in the house and referred to the relevant committees.
Those bills were: Toshakhana (Management and Regulation) Bill 2023, Imports and Exports (Control) (Amendment) Bill 2023, National Skills University Islamabad (Amendment) Bill 2023, One Stop Service Bill 2023 and Trade Marks (Amendment) Bill 2023. The Senate was adjourned till Wednesday (July 26).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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