Theft of taxpayers' confidential data: FTO's key recommendations still pending

A key recommendation by FTO is pending implementation despite dismissal of FBR's representation by President, on the issue of taxpayers' confidential data theft, which shall now be investigated by FIA, involving FBR/PRAL officials who illegally accessed confidential data pertaining to taxpayers' assessment.
It is learnt that in a landmark order FTO holds that any person who, in contravention of Section 216 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 discloses any particulars of taxpayer's assessment record is guilty of an offence which is punishable, on conviction, with fine &/or imprisonment.
Sources told this correspondent that the President while rejecting the representation filed by FBR has validated the order passed by FTO wherein a landmark case of unique nature was decided by FTO Abdur Rauf Chaudhry. Resultantly, a unique case of data theft will be investigated by Cyber Crimes Wing of the FIA and FBR involving tax officers, who illegally accessed confidential taxpayers' assessment record.
President stated, "This representation has been filed by Agency. However, recommendations as such do not appear to be cause of any grievance to Agency rather direction had been issued in the matter of safeguarding integrity and confidentiality of tax record in accordance with provisions of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. No grounds stand made out for interference with findings and recommendations of FTO. Accordingly, the President has rejected the above referred representation".
It is learnt that the case disclosed a strange phenomenon of data theft involving some FBR/tax officers, who illegally accessed returns of income and wealth statements of manually filed as well as the electronic assessment record. This is a complaint against alleged theft of confidential data from a taxpayer's assessment record by Sohail Amin of Gaggoo Mandi, Burewala while the case was represented by an advocate. The modus operandi adopted by the officers was to first access the confidential record of registered persons from electronic system and later use the same for filing of complaints against registered persons with evidence of stolen assessment record.
Taking serious notice of the situation, FTO Abdur Rauf directed the FBR to conduct enquiry to determine how and why complainant's assessment record was accessed by a number of FBR officials when they were not charged with conducting any enquiry involving him in any manner, nor were they involved in assessment of his income for any tax period.
The FBR should devise a foolproof SOP in consultation with the National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes (NRC) wing of FIA to protect the confidential data of taxpayers. The FBR should also enforce strict confidentiality of passwords assigned to field officers for purposes of accessing taxpayer's electronic record.
A copy of the said findings/recommendations, along with copy of complaint filed the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court (SC) be forwarded to the NRC wing of FIA for initiating criminal investigation into the matter, as per law, the FTO added. The complainant has alleged in his complaint before the FTO that officials of the RTO Multan and PRAL, custodians of taxpayers' assessment record, have failed to ensure the secrecy of his assessment record. He stated that he had reasons to believe that his confidential assessment record was accessed in the absence of official requirement by these officials.
The FTO said any person who, in contravention of the provisions of Section 216 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001, discloses any particulars borne on a taxpayer's assessment record is guilty of an offence under Section 198 of the Ordinance which is punishable, on conviction, with fine or/and imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.
The provisions of Section 216 the Ordinance, cast a statutory responsibility on the FBR to ensure the integrity of a taxpayers assessment record. The fact that the person(s) behind the fictitious complaint filed in the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court made specific reference to information borne on the assessment record of Sohail Amin, the complainant before the FTO, shows that the RTO Multan and PRAL have failed to ensure the confidentiality of the complainant's assessment record, the FTO order added.