Senate Standing Committee on Finance has opposed giving authority to the government to have free access to any premises/place and accounts/documents/computer without prior notice in the proposed Benami law. The committee has proposed amendments as well as observations to the various clauses of the proposed Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill 2016.
Considering clause 19 of the Bill, the committee expressed grave reservations and decided to discuss it again in the next meeting in order to propose a suitable amendment in contravention of giving all times authority to the government to have full and free access to any premises, place, accounts, documents or computer without prior notice, in order to enforce any provision of the proposed law.
The committee further directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to propose an amendment to be made part of the said Bill regarding payment of bonuses or ex gratia payment to the officers and staff of the FBR, other government servants and public servants as well as rewards to members of public for rendering commendable services in detection, investigation and prosecution of any offence under the said Bill which may be prescribed by framing the rules.
While considering clause 4 of the Bill, the committee decided to reconsider it in the next meeting for proposing an appropriate and specific amendment in order to prescribe heavy penalty instead of liability of confiscation by the federal government on becoming of any property the subject matter of Benami transactions. The committee directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to propose specific amendments to those clauses of the Bill on which they had observations, within a week's time, for consideration by the Committee in its next meeting. The Committee further directed the FBR to provide para-wise comments on the views received from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill, 2106, before the next meeting. To clause 32 of the Bill, the committee decided that Senator Mohsin Aziz will draft a suitable amendment with regard to the attainment of age limit of sixty-two years for the chairperson and members of the tribunal, for consideration.
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