ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue, Senator Haroon Akhtar has said that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has not shown any concern about the amnesty scheme.
He was talking to the media after the launching of Restaurant Invoice Management System (RIMS) on Wednesday.
Senator Haroon Akhtar said that the government has addressed the reservations of FATF as “…they just go through the amnesty scheme under the preview of FATF rules. We have excluded the criminal offence from the ordinance so their concerns should be addressed”, he further added.
Senator Haroon Akhtar said that “we compare money laundering with Hundi but actually money laundering is not Hundi, the latter comes under the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act”.
He further added that money laundering is linked with predicate offence, the proceeds of crime; “we should separate both these things”. He gave the example that five million pounds have been recovered from the custody of Altaf Hussain in London, however, the British government acquitted him because they could not attach the proceeds of crimes and predicate offence whereas, in our country, money is being linked to money laundering. This is not money laundering, until and unless, it has been proved that money was received as a result of a crime, so we have excluded the criminal offence from the ordinance wherever the money comes in, the domain of criminal offence and they will bring the money hence disclosed, he added.
In one another question, the government can make any decision during his tenure like instance the four provincial assemblies nominated 52 senators in March for the period of six years and their mandate left two and half months so if this is to happen, the government can also announce anything.
While replying to a question, he said that the government will include the real estate sector provisions in the upcoming finance bill because we have to consult with the provinces on this matter.
Earlier, in a ceremony, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has launched RIMS, a technology-based solution that enables the monitoring of sales on a real-time basis, bringing transparency in the process of tax collection.
The prime objective of the web-based RIMS application is to facilitate the taxpayers by relying on modern techniques to tap the difference between current and potential collection.
The ceremony was attended by Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan, ICCI President Sheikh Amir Waheed Tariq, and a representative from the restaurants association, Khurram Khan.
It is appreciable that RIMS has so far been successfully installed in 80 plus renowned restaurants operating in the Federal Capital and further implementations in the remaining restaurants are in process.
FBR, as a part of its ongoing strategy, is committed to relying more on the usage of modern techniques to bring about efficiency and effectiveness in tax collection. FBR is all set to work in close collaboration with the Chambers and Restaurants Associations to ensure the application of this system in all restaurants of Islamabad.
