Apparently succumbing to pressure from powerful lobbies, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has suspended the implementation of an order meant for recovery of tax from evaders.
Last week, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) issued SRO 351, granting power of assessment and recovery to officials of the tax intelligence unit of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS), to unearth and recover the evaded tax from fraudsters.
“The FBR issued the SRO without my approval and was unfair in its spirit,” Finance Minister Dar told representatives of the chambers of trade and industry and exporters and importers,
Mr Dar added that all “discriminatory SROs” would be abolished within three years and all the stakeholders were working together in this regard, an official statement said.
In the past 10 months (July-April), the intelligence unit has unearthed cases involving tax evasion of Rs6 billion. These cases were referred to the regional tax offices and large taxpayers units (LTUs) for recovery from the evaders.
