KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) may have direct access to bank transactions and the central database of banks through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Daily Times learnt on Friday.
Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh, chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation, has said the committee will recommend the government to give direct access to the FBR to the database of banks through the FIA.
On Friday, at a meeting with FBR officials at the Regional Tax Office (RTO) here, Sheikh said the longstanding demand of the FBR for direct access to details of transactions and the central database of banks could be met. He said the FIA was legally allowed recently to have direct access to details of bank transactions and banks’ central database.
A committee member said the bank accounts access issue could be resolved by asking the FIA to assist the FBR. The committee chairman agreed to take up the issue with the authorities concerned. It is important to mention here that under Section 165 A, banks are bound to provide direct access to the FBR to their central database and account holders. Besides, banks are bound to provide details of transaction of up to one million rupees to the revenue authorities.
FBR officers informed the committee that negotiations with the Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) failed to produce any positive results because banks did not want to give the FBR direct access to people’s accounts.
At a meeting with the committee, the FBR demanded a strong linkage with the database of other agencies like the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), telecom companies, immigration department and housing societies. FBR officials were of the view that political leadership should own and encourage efforts to broaden the tax base.
