Lahore: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) recently announced its decision to take action against Pakistanis who continue to buy US Dollars (USD) in bulk, a news source reported. In a related development, the board also notified receiving the data of 24,000 Pakistanis who bought dollars in large sums during the Financial Year 2017-18.
FBR officials are currently investigating the tax records of these individuals, and preparing to question them. The board sources have revealed that 9,880 out of the total number of the accused people are from Lahore.
The Regional Tax Office (RTO) has received the list of names of these Pakistanis, and the FBR will soon issue notices to them. They will have to reveal to the board their sources of income that enabled them to buy such large sums of dollars.
According to FBR sources, many of these people were found to have withdrawn money from their bank accounts in order to evade withholding tax. They added that the withdrawn money was invested in dollars, euros, pounds, and gold.
Last year, the government — in coordination with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Finance Ministry — had also initiated a crackdown against people involved in dollar hoarding, and speculative currency trade.
The authorities concerned had raided various money exchange companies, and accused them of creating an artificial crises due to hoarding dollars, and their involvement in illegal Hawala and Hundi business.
