‘Declared assets cannot be presented as evidence against declarer’

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi has said that the declared assets could not be referred to as evidence for any legal proceeding under any other law.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Shabbar Zaidi clarified that the assets declared, under section 12 of the Assets Declaration Ordinance 2019, could not be used as evidence against the declarer for a legal proceeding or fine under any other law.

The assets declared would never be presented in any court of law or any other forum as evidence against those declaring their assets, the statement added.

In addition, as a precautionary measure, this (declared) data would be secured in the FBR and would not be available to any official of the FBR or any other government agency.

Section 12 of the Assets Declaration Ordinance 2019 states that the declared assets would have legal immunity.

Earlier, Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar had said that the government has ensured that those availing the amnesty scheme, or those who had mentioned their properties in the tax returns, would not be harassed.

He assured those intending to declare their assets under the current scheme that they would never face any difficulty in future after sharing their data with the FBR.

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