Pakistan

PM Shehbaz forms special committee to probe ‘arrest’ of tax defaulters

Published by

Staff Reporter

12 months ago

ISLAMABAD: In a recent development, Prime Minister (PM) Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addressed reports in the media about the arrest of tax defaulters and issued stern instructions that no such legal measures should be employed to harass the business community and taxpayers under any circumstances.

The Prime Minister instructed the establishment of a special committee to address

this issue. The prime minister presided over a review meeting of issues about the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the PM Office Media Wing said in a statement.

The prime minister was

informed that the legal provisions for the arrest of defaulters in sales tax had been a part of the law since the 1990s, but in the wake of rulings by the courts, the clauses were being altered to make them more coherent.

The meeting was attended by the Ministers for Defence, Law, Commerce, Economic Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, Minister of State for Railways, Chairman FBR, economic experts, and senior officials.

After thoroughly reviewing the matter, the prime minister opined that harassing regular taxpayers was unacceptable.

“The dignity and respect of the business community and investors mean a lot to us, and any unwarranted harassment is unacceptable,” quoted the press release, press release qouted.

PM Shehbaz

also directed that the arrest warrant under applicable tax law be reserved only for cases concerning defaulters of an extraordinary magnitude.

The prime minister also

ordered that a proper mechanism of outside review and checks and balances be established in the matter of arrests.

Provisions

to safeguard against abuse of these laws should be included in the Finance Act, he also noted. PM Shehbaz ordered that all the government’s allied parties in the parliament must be consulted on this issue.

Staff Reporter