ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday decided to send Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) requests to foreign jurisdictions for investigating cases linked to foreign jurisdictions.
According to a Customs General Order No. 01 of 2023 issued on Wednesday, the customs collector or the director will ensure that in all cases where the accused or the criminal offense has links in a foreign jurisdiction, an MLA request will be sent before carrying out the investigation.
The request will be made directly through the national focal point under the MLA (Criminal Matters) Act, 2020, under intimation to the chief of International Customs of FBR.
Under the customs laws, “Foreign Jurisdiction” means a foreign country with which Pakistan has a bilateral arrangement for mutual legal assistance.
Efforts shall be made to develop and use an automated system to maintain and update records of all incoming and outgoing MLA requests and other forms of international cooperation.
The Directorate of Cross Border Currency Movement (CBCM) will be the overall data repository of all anti-money laundering and terror financing related cases.
All directorates of Pakistan Customs are advised to maintain an updated record of all cases of predicate offenses and are required to submit monthly reports to the Chief, Facilitation & Compliance (F&C) with intimation to the Chief of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Cell of the FBR.
All directorates are bound to respond to the MLA request received from International Customs (IC) Section of FBR within the specified timelines, if any, and shall keep an updated record of all incoming and outgoing MLA requests pertaining to their respective jurisdiction.
