ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has denied making any changes in the tax records of the members of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family.

“We have provided 95 per cent tax records available with the FBR to the joint investigation team (JIT),” FBR Chairman Dr Mohammad Irshad told reporters on Friday.

Replying to questions after the launching of a handbook and a documentary on the recently approved budget, he said no one could tamper with the tax records.

He said the missing tax records were confined to the years in which the taxpayers did not submit their wealth statements.

“We have provided the tax records of the premier’s family since 1980,” Dr Irshad said.

Under the law, the government could only investigate tax cases of the past five years, he said.

“We are not bound to keep old records under the existing law,” the chairman said, adding that the FBR would still cooperate with the JIT.

The clarification came a day after the JIT complained of non-cooperation from the tax department.

Dr Irshad said no records had been kept hidden from the JIT.

Elaborating the reasons for the delay in providing the records, the chairman said that tax officials had taken one day to find the relevant records in 1.5 million to 2m files at the commissioner’s office in Lahore. “We have provided all records except of those years when the wealth statement was not mandatory.”

On the occasion, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan said the past year had been quite challenging for the FBR on the revenue generation front but there were substantial signs that the collection target would be met despite a number of relief measures and subsidies granted to the export and agriculture sectors.

“There are visible signs of the revenue authority recording a cumulative growth of 75pc in revenue generation over the past four years despite continuously declining inflation and massive tax relief measures announced by the government for various sectors.”

He said the tax proposals incorporated in the Finance Bill 2017 had been drawn up after detailed discussions and lengthy sessions with members and office-bearers of all leading chambers of commerce and industry, trade bodies and tax bar associations.

The special assistant said the adopted tax proposals were realistic and pointed to the sincerity of the government’s socio-economic agenda.

The FBR chairman lauded the Facilitation and Taxpayers Education Wing team for producing the documentary which explained the role played by board and its officers in the budget-making process.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2017