ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated probe into second set of Panama leaks.
The board has started gathering data of the persons named in Panama leaks. However, officials stated that legally the department is not allowed to gather income tax and wealth tax data older than 2010. Sources privy to the board stated that the law does not permit gathering data older than 2010.
The board will share the data with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), according to a Private TV channel report.
Panama Papers published second set of leaks by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) through an anonymous source on May 9. Documents and the data belong to Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm.
Around 259 Pakistanis were named yesterday in the leaks and allegedly own offshore companies. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Aleem Khan was alleged yesterday to which he responded in a press conference. According to him, he was not named in Panama leaks and rival politicians were using journalists to place news stories against him in local newspapers.
The second set of leaks show over 108 persons belonging to Lahore while 150 from Karachi. Dealing through unregistered offshore companies means that the alleged persons shifted their money to foreign countries and evaded taxes.
Panama leaks merely mention names of persons who own offshore companies but none can say for sure if those are illegal unless proven.
INP
