FBR GETS NO RESPONSE FROM ANY TAX HAVEN

SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has not received any response from nine foreign jurisdictions/tax havens about those having offshore companies/entities in Panama and the Bahamas.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that besides Panama and the Bahamas, these tax havens include the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Niue, Samoa, Anguilla, Mauritius, and Jersey. Initially, letters were written by the FBR last year November 2016. Now, the FBR has issued reminders to the said foreign jurisdictions seeking details of information about the owners of offshore companies. The FBR had sent letters to the Secretary, Foreign Affairs, Islamabad for onward submission to foreign jurisdictions/tax havens. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent, through diplomatic channels, the letters to the tax havens.

The FBR through Ministry of Foreign Affairs is seeking more evidence and information about bank accounts, business assets, investments, etc of those persons and entities named in the leaks. In this regard, the FBR had communicated with the governments of Panama, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Samoa, Anguilla, Seychelles, Mauritius, Nieu, Jersey, etc, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for obtaining necessary information and documentary evidence from the revenue authorities of these tax havens.

So far, the FBR has not received any response from any of these tax jurisdictions, sources said.

There were a total of nine jurisdictions, 270 companies and 444 individuals reportedly involved in the Panama Leaks. Similarly, 150 Pakistani individuals were reportedly found named in Bahamas Leaks.