The recent meeting of the Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges has resulted in the decision to direct the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to rectify the Parliamentarians Tax Directory (PTD) based on consultations with the Senate Secretariat.
The meeting of the Standing Committee was chaired by Senator Muhammad Tahir Bizenjo at the Parliament House on Wednesday.
The committee discussed the Privilege Motion moved by Senator Sherry Rehman regarding the Parliamentarians Tax Directory for the Tax Year 2019 that was published by the FBR.
The committee chairman asked the Member (IT) FBR about the issue and drew the attention of the committee to the fact that the FBR had published the PTD for the Tax Year 2019 in the year 2022 with a delay of three years.
Senator Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui enquired about the reasons behind the inclusion of the names of the persons, who were not even members of the parliament in 2019, in the PTD for the Tax Year 2019.
The Member (IT) FBR admitted that the PTD was published with a delay of three years when it should have been published in 2020 and attributed the delay to the change of the government.
Regarding the inclusion of the names of the persons who were not parliamentarians in 2019, he informed the committee that the PTD was published with the approval of the federal cabinet, and the names of the senators were taken from the Senate’s official website.
The committee chairman stated that the list of senators on the website was from 2021 and that the FBR should have formally requested the Senate Secretariat for the provision of the names of the members of the Senate in 2019 instead.
The Member (IT) FBR admitted that the FBR had erred in fetching the names from the Senate’s official website without consulting the Senate Secretariat.
The committee then decided to ask the FBR to rectify the Tax Directory and publish its corrigendum. The chairman, however, deferred the agenda item for the next meeting due to the absence of the Mover and called for the FBR Chairman to attend the next meeting in person.
The meeting was attended by Senators Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui and Manzoor Ahmed Khan Kakar, and senior officers from the concerned ministries and departments.
