Finance Minister Shares Clever Plan to Arrest Businessmen Who Commit Tax Fraud

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the government has placed 4-5 necessary safeguards for the business community to avoid misuse of powers during the arrest of the business community for committing tax fraud.

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, held its fifth consecutive session to deliberate on the Finance Bill 2025 and the Annual Budget Statement laid before Parliament.

Aurangzeb informed that, on the special directive of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, four safeguards have been implemented to ensure that the powers to arrest are not misused by FBR tax officials. The new conditions have been placed to ensure that the FBR officials do not misuse their powers, and conditions are met before the arrest of a businessman.

The safeguards are:

1. The arrest would be made after approval of a high-level Board of FBR.
2. The accused of tax fraud would be arrested where there was a fear of his escape out of the country.
3. The accused of tax fraud would be arrested if there is evidence of Tampering.
4. The accused of tax fraud would be arrested if tax fraud involves an amount over and above Rs 50 million.
5. If someone fails to respond to three notices of tax fraud, they can be arrested.