Karachi: Several major financial institutions have agreed to share the details of their account holders with the tax authorities in the latter’s bid to track undocumented money in the banking channels, according to news sources. Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi and the chief executives of these commercial banks reached an agreement in a meeting held on November 27 at the Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi.
Previously, the Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) had acceded to withdrawing its petitions filed in the High Courts and had agreed to share account holders’ details under Section 165-A of Income Tax Ordinance 2001. This development will offer real-time transaction information access to the tax authorities.
Section 165-A makes it mandatory for banks to share the financial transactions details. The said requirement was introduced through the Finance Act 2013. However, its implementation was postponed until the high court had reached a verdict. The banks filed the petitions for their concern overs their patrons’ privacy.
Further, the FBR chairman announced that the said section was amended in 2014, 2018 and recently (through Supplementary Finance Amendment Act, 2019) on the PBA’s recommendations.
The shareable account details would include a list of:
Individuals who withdraw PKR 50,000 on a daily basis
Individuals who withdraw over PKR 1 million on a monthly basis
Individuals who make deposits of PKR 10 million on a monthly basis
Individuals who make credit card payments of PKR 250,000 on a monthly basis
Individuals who receive profit on debt above PKR 500,000 on an annual basis
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