Tag: Federal Board of Revenue

  • Rs15 crores for venue, Rs1 crore for singers, Rs20 lacs on makeup: Details of ‘elite wedding’ expenditure

    The owner of Master Tiles is on the Federal Board Revenue (FBR) radar for spending Rs2 billion on the wedding ceremony of his son.

    The wedding ceremony that had attracted media attention for its extravagant style also featured several Pakistani celebrities in addition to a troupe of foreign gymnasts.

    Subsequently, a probe was conducted by the FBR into the “service providers involved in the lavish arrangements” to detect possible tax evasion. The document shared by the FBR said that Rosa Blanca Country Club, the venue of baraat located on Raiwind Road in Lahore, was paid Rs150 million for the premises.

    The FBR inquiry said that the private company doesn’t have an NTN (national tax number) at all, adding that there’s a strong reason to suspect that the entity was not paying taxes at all.

    The wedding organisers supposedly paid Rs5.5m to singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, while singers Atif Aslam was paid Rs5m for gracing the mehndi night. Cleric Moulana Tariq Jameel was reportedly paid Rs1m for solemnising the marriage ceremony.

    K-5 Concepts — event manager that managed baraat decor– was paid Rs15-20m as per FBR. It was also accused of tax evasion along with Rosa Blanca. Qasim Yar Tiwana, the event manager, was paid Rs15-20m for the decor of the baraat. According to FBR, Tiwana declared Rs216,743 as income from business in the tax year 2019.

    Whimsica I Parties and United Events and Services were paid Rs10m each for decor, whereas Ahsan Habib also received Rs10m in payments for walima decorations.

    Photographers and videographers also provided their services for hefty amounts. Irfan Ahsan was paid approx Rs3m, Mobeen Studios charged Rs2m, Osman Pervaiz received Rs3-3.5m, while Ahmad Fayyaz charged Rs1m for photography at mehndi and baraat.

    Shazray Khalid and Winc by Nadia charged Rs1m each for makeup services.

    CHECK OUT THE FULL REPORT HERE:

    November 13, 2020
  • Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s wife awarded Rs35 million penalty by FBR

    Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s wife awarded Rs35 million penalty by FBR

    The wife of Justice Qazi Faez Isa has been stated to have a tax liability of Rs35 million on account of her foreign assets and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has slapped a penalty on her against the same amount.

    According to reports, this was revealed in 164-page order issued by Inland Revenue and International Taxes Zone Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmed on September 14.

    While the decision may have bearing on Justice Isa’s future as a Supreme Court (SC) judge in line to become the chief justice of Pakistan, his wife Sarina Isa has accused the FBR as well as the federal government of mala fide abuse and announced she will challenge the decision at a higher forum.

    In June this year, a 10-judge SC bench had suppressed a presidential reference that had accused Justice Isa of misconduct based on non-disclosure of his family’s offshore properties in his wealth statement.

    However, the bench had also directed the FBR to investigate Isa’s familial assets abroad and submit a report to Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), which is the constitutional forum with the authority to hold a superior court judge accountable.

    Sarina, in a written statement, has cast doubt on the order and went on to accuse FBR official Zulfiqar Ahmed of creating “artificial tax liability of over Rs35 million” against her.

    “I don’t even know if he wrote the order himself,” she added.

    Under the apex court’s June 19 split order, Sarina may use all legal options against the FBR order.

    Sarina went on to reject the FBR official’s referring to her alleged refusal to deliver the FBR notice, citing that her father had passed away on that day.

    In the statement, she claimed that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan was leading a team aiming to victimise her husband and his family in a bid to remove Justice Isa from his position.

  • FBR chief replaced again

    FBR chief replaced again

    The federal government has removed Nausheen Amjad from the post of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairperson, replacing her with Javed Ghani.

    Amjad, a BS-22 officer of Inland Revenue Service (IRS), had in April been appointed as FBR chairperson after then chief Shabbar Zaidi could not continue his duties due to health conditions.

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had handpicked Zaidi as his man to achieve the goal of collecting Rs5.5 trillion in taxes during the previous fiscal year and Rs8 trillion by the end of his term.

    Zaidi was good in policymaking but he could not handle the FBR’s operations well. The former chairman also could not appoint competent members at the top and transferred thousands of people of low ranks without replacing the top hierarchy.

    His successor, Nausheen was the second woman to lead the organisation of 25,000 people and the fourth chairperson in the past 20 months.

    The government had approved her appointment by having the federal cabinet circulate a summary instead of bringing the matter in a regular cabinet meeting.

    Nausheen faced and her successor faces a gigantic task of stopping the nosediving tax revenues, restructuring the top FBR hierarchy and improving the tainted image of the tax machinery.

    Ghani will also have to address the issue of rampant corruption, particularly fresh reports regarding some officers receiving kickbacks from taxpayers for putting their names on the list of those who will receive tax refunds on a priority basis under the PM’s COVID-19 relief package, and achieve targets set by the government in the new budget.