The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has demanded that the assets of officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should be made public.
The committee which met under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla discussed the issue of asset declaration by FBR officials in detail.
Saifullah Niazi said that officials should declare their present assets and assets at the time of joining the FBR. FBR Chairman Malik Amjed Zubair Tiwana apprised the committee that it is mandatory to declare assets at the time of joining the Board and at the time of promotion.
The committee chairman said that it has been claimed that FBR officials have benami properties. However, Tiwana clarified that if any official is guilty of having benami properties, appropriate action is taken. However, he added that FBR has 25,000 officials and it is not possible to check the assets of every employee.
Tiwana’s response was met by Senator Kamil Ali Agha who asked who the FBR can be trusted to check the assets of 250 million people when it cannot verify the assets of just 25,000 of its own staff and said that the FBR chairman’s response is not satisfactory.
Agha said that a former chairman of the FBR told the committee that there is corruption to the tune of Rs. 600 billion within the FBR and said that FBR officials should be held accountable.
Special Secretary Finance Awais Manzur Sumra told the committee that the government does not have any mechanism to check the assets of officials. Sumra said that the Establishment Division can make the necessary amendments in law with regard to asset declaration.
The committee demanded that changes in the law related to asset declaration should be presented before the committee.
The committee members said that the assets of officials would be made public after approval from the federal government.
