Revised 'Assets Declaration Form' for MPs: FBR ready to provide help to ECP

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is ready to provide technical and legal assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to devise a revised 'Assets Declaration Form' for disclosure of information about assets and liabilities of Members of National Assembly and Senate and their close relatives and dependants.
Sources told Business Recorder that an important meeting between the FBR and the Election Commission was held here on Wednesday to explore possibilities for sharing information about assets and liabilities of Members of National Assembly and Senate. The meeting held at the office of the ECP was attended by senior officials of the FBR as well as the ECP. The meeting which continued for several hours discussed different areas including assessment of the declared campaign expenses of the political parties and utilisation of data pertaining to the assets and liabilities of Members of the Parliament and Provincial Assemblies.
According to sources, the FBR has shown its willingness in devising and improving the 'Assets Declaration Form' for the ECP to ensure collection of maximum information about the assets of the Parliamentarians and their family members. Any revision in the 'Assets Declaration Form' could be done with the help of the tax officials having ample experience in devising forms for disclosure of information under returns and statements from the taxpayers. The FBR can also help the ECP to revise the 'Assets Declaration Form' for collecting information about the assets made in the names of the family members and dependents of the Parliamentarians.
Sources said that the FBR can verify the assets related information of Parliamentarians shared by the Election Commission. If the ECP would provide information about the Parliamentarians to the FBR for verification, the FBR can cross-match the information with its own database. However, the FBR cannot share its own information maintained by the Board due to limitations under section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. If the government wanted to provide information of Parliamentarians being maintained by the Board to the ECP, amendment would be required in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. Presently, section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 bars the tax department from sharing information about the taxpayers with other government departments including ECP. Thus, the government has to introduce amendment in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 to permit the tax department to disclose confidential information about the taxpayers to the public.
The FBR can help the ECP to reconcile assets related data being maintained by the commission with the database of the FBR. This could be possible in cases where the ECP provides data of assets to the FBR for verification , sources added.