ISLAMABAD:
Tax authorities neither have formal arrangements for exchange of information with the infamous offshore tax havens nor the capacity to confront influential people.
Pakistan’s chances of getting any advantage from the leaked information about more than 200 of its citizens who have stashed wealth abroad are bleak.
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The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is the relevant institution that can probe what was the source of income of these over 200 people, whether they got approval before remitting the money abroad, was it legal money and had the beneficial owners paid due taxes on the income generated in Pakistan.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is the relevant institution that can probe what was the source of income of these over 200 people, whether they got approval before remitting the money abroad, was it legal money and had the beneficial owners paid due taxes on the income generated in Pakistan.
Just last month, the FBR faced embarrassment when it raided the boutique run by a daughter of a former finance minister. Tax officials were beaten, kept in illegal custody for hours and released only after police came to their rescue. To date, the FBR has been unable to register an FIR against the woman. The boutique owner, however, maintains that the FBR officials have harassed her and behaved like ‘gangsters’.
Keeping this in view, the question is will the FBR confront the sons and a daughter of the sitting prime minister?
Keeping this in view, the question is will the FBR confront the sons and a daughter of the sitting prime minister?
A huge leak of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca last week detailed how the world’s rich escaped through loopholes to keep cash in low-tax jurisdictions. More than 500 banks, their subsidiaries and branches registered nearly 15,600 shell companies through Mossack Fonseca, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Some of these companies are owned by over 200 Pakistani politicians, businessmen and judges. The prominent ones are Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s two sons, Hussain and Hasan, and daughter Mariam. The premier’s children have been named in the documents for owning offshore businesses.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, along with her nephew Hassan Ali Jaffery and Senator Rehman Malik, have been named as sole shareholders of a petroleum company found by the UN to be involved in giving bribes to win contracts in Iraq more than a decade ago.
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Senator Osman Saifullah and his family have been reported as owning 34 companies in the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles.
Senator Osman Saifullah and his family have been reported as owning 34 companies in the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles.
According to experts, four major companies sell the shell companies to those who desire to park their wealth abroad due to various reasons. Hong Kong-based Offshore Incorporations Limited sells companies to legal and accounting firms, banks, corporations and (often in bulk) to web-based resellers. It has 1,300 employees in 35 countries.
Article via: tribune
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