He said however, through amendment in the Finance Act 2018, this limitation has been changed for concealed foreign assets/income, only. He said that now, consequent to the aforesaid amendment, any amount representing investment, money, valuable article or expenditure situated or incurred outside Pakistan and foreign sources undisclosed income are required to be added to the income of the person in the immediately preceding tax year of discovery.
The director general said that FBR could have traced 150 cases out of 444 cases. He said that FBR recovered Rs 6.5 billion out of Rs 14.5 billion from the cases. He said that 21 people of Panama Leaks cases have taken amnesty last year through amnesty scheme while 2 people have taken amnesty this year. He said that a total of 291 cases are pending.
Answering a question, he said, "We have traced cases only from 11 foreign countries. We could not get information of assets but only names of people, company and country could be achieved."
Answering another question, he said that Switzerland is not included in 11 foreign countries. He said, "We can get some information from year 2016 but before this year, information is time barred." He said that there is need of legislation to remove time bar limitation. Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) said that there is discrimination, as cases of those people who got the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) are not being pursued.
Minister for Parliamentary Affair Ali Muhammad Khan seconded Chitrali and said that is not an issue of Chitrali but all of the members. "There is no law and we will pursue these cases. We are ready if there is need of any legislation for this purpose," he said. The committee summoned the finance minister and the chairman FBR to its next meeting.
