The newly-established Directorate General of International Operations would become operational from Monday (March 18) for the imposition and recovery of taxes from undisclosed offshore assets and income held by Pakistanis abroad and to interact directly with foreign tax jurisdictions for exchange of information.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Inland Revenue Policy Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar told a press conference Wednesday that the Board-in-Council of the FBR has approved operationalisation of DG International Operations from next week.
Under a major amendment in the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Act, 2019, the government has decided to establish Directorate of International Operations to exclusively deal with the cases of undisclosed offshore assets and income of Pakistanis held abroad.
The Board-in-Council of the FBR has approved that a senior official would head the DG International Operations. To a question, the FBR Member Inland Revenue Policy said that first case of provisional assessment of an offshore asset has been completed where recovery has also been made. Without disclosing further details, he said that it is a case relating to Karachi.
According to the functions of the new directorate, Directorate General of International Tax Operations shall consist of a director general and as many directors, additional directors, deputy directors, assistant directors and such other officers as the Board may, by notification in the official Gazette, appoint.
The Board may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify the functions and jurisdiction of the Directorate General and its officers and confer the powers of authorities specified in section 207 upon the Directorate General and its officers.
The functions and powers of the Directorate General of International Tax Operations included to receive and send information from other jurisdictions under spontaneous, automatic and on demand exchange of information under exchange of information agreements levy and recover tax by passing an assessment order under section 123(1A) in case of undeclared off-shore assets and incomes; receive, transmit and exchange country by country reports to the jurisdictions that are parties to international agreements with Pakistan and conduct transfer pricing audit in cases selected for such audit by the Director General of International Tax Operations. The Board may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify the criteria for selection of the taxpayer for transfer pricing audit, Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Act, 2019 added.