Islamabad: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced that the Benami Act will become operational on February 8, according to a news report. This will allow the government to confiscate properties and bank accounts registered under fictitious names.
According to FBR Member Inland Revenue (IR) Policy Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar, the law comes in line with the government’s efforts to document the workings of the national economy. It will allow the authorities to take strict action against movable and immovable assets registered under fictitious names for tax avoidance purposes.
The law had been on hold since January 2017 (when it was passed by parliament) because its rules had to be finalised.
In a related development, Member IR Operations Seema Shakil told a news source that 6,000 notices have been issued to high net-worth individuals (HNWI) in the past two months. The tax demand in 204 of these cases stood at PKR 6 billion; with the recovered amount, so far, being PKR 2.5 billion.
