Pakistan’s premium tax and financial watchdog, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has announced to launch investigations into global tax avoidance.
The Paradise Papers, released by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), over the weekend has revealed a trove of data on the offshore holdings of some of the world’s richest individuals and companies, raising a host of questions about investment ties and tax avoidance.
Paradise Papers’ massive 13.4 million documents leak reveals over 25,000 companies affiliated with people in 180 countries.
The documents include the names of 135 Pakistani nationals, including former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Federal Board of Revenue is considering issuing notices to those Pakistanis named in the “Paradise Leaks” to investigate the ownership of their offshore companies and the source of money used in purchasing the firms, according to local media reports.
“The list of names is extensive and all those Pakistani nationals named in the papers will be investigated,” according to an FBR statement.
FBR had issued notices to over 400 persons named in Panama leaks and investigated the ownership of the offshore companies and the source of money used in purchasing such firms, Former FBR Chairman Dr Irshad was quoted as saying by Pakistan Today. After the Panama leaks, FBR’s Directorate General Intelligence and Investigation (I & I) Inland Revenues (IR) had also recovered over Rs6 billion from a couple, Bashir Dawood and Maryam Dawood under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.
Recently, Pakistan has introduced Companies Act 2017 under which it is compulsory for all those firms registered with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to declare if they have any shareholdings abroad.
Pakistan’s Former PM Shaukat Aziz among 135 Pakistanis named in Paradise Papers
Among 135 Pakistanis named in the ‘Paradise Papers’, the most prominent figure is former prime minister Shaukat Aziz who served from 2004 to 2007. He settled abroad after the end of his tenure.
Mr Aziz worked for Citibank before joining politics and was “one of the shareholders and directors of the Bahamas-registered Cititrust Limited from 1997 to 1999, along with other executives of the bank”.
“Shaukat Aziz set up the Antarctic Trust in the name of his wife, three children and granddaughter weeks before he came to Pakistan to lead the finance ministry,” ICIJ Pakistan representative Umar Cheema told Geo News in a TV interview. He added that these assets were never declared to any Pakistani institution in financial documents Mr Aziz submitted between 2003 and 2006.
Pakistan’s former National Insurance Corporation Limited chairperson Ayaz Khan Niazi has also been identified in the records in connection with four offshore holdings in the British Virgin Islands.
Paradise Papers, one of the biggest leaks in the history of journalism, has revealed data of over 25,000 companies in 180 countries, from 1950 to 2016. The US-based global network of journalists, ICIJ, acquired documents from two companies in Singapore and Bermuda.
About half of the documents — 6.8 million — come from leaked files of Bermudian-founded law firm Appleby which were then obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the ICIJ.
