ISLAMABAD: The federal government has withdrawn powers and jurisdiction of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate persons/transactions causing revenue loss on account of taxation matters.
The NAB has been restrained from taking action against the public office holders giving any advice, report or opinion during the course of his official duty.
Through the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2021, the powers of the NAB to investigate the taxation matters has been taken away, as the same would be investigated by the competent departments i.e., the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the provincial revenue boards/authorities, provincial excise and taxation departments, and the local authorities, etc.
Sources told Business Recorder that the FBR has already received tax-related and under-invoices cases of the business community from NAB. Any pending cases of the business community pertaining to income and sales tax would be referred to the FBR.
The provisions of the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2021 shall not be applicable to the following persons or transactions:
(i) all matters pertaining to federal, provincial or local taxation, other levies or imports.
ii) decisions of Federal or Provincial Cabinet, their Committees or Sub-Committees, ECC of the Cabinet, Council of Common Interests (CCI), National Economic Council (NEC), National Finance Commission (NFC), Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), or decisions of the boards of any body, body corporate, corporations, authority or financial institutions established by or under the constitution or law and entrusted with policy making and collective decision making.
(iii) any person or entity who, or transaction in relation thereto, which are not directly or indirectly connected with the holder of a public office.
(iv) procedural lapses in any public or governmental work, project or scheme, unless it is shown that a holder of public office or any other person has been conferred or has received any monetary or other material benefit from that particular public or governmental work, whether directly or indirectly on account of such procedural lapses, which the said recipient was otherwise not entitled to receive.
(v) an advice, report or opinion rendered or given by a public office holder or any other person in the course of his duty, unless there is sufficient evidence to show that the holder of public office or any other person received or gained any monetary or other material benefit, from that advice, report or opinion, it added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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