Pak expats in UAE declared Rs345 bn during last amnesty

DUBAI: Pakistani expatriates residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had whitened Rs345 billion in the last tax amnesty scheme introduced by the previous PML-N government while Rs1 trillion were total amount of whitened money through last year’s amnesty scheme, revealed by the senior official of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in Dubai.

Briefing about the latest amnesty scheme, the Director General International Taxes of top federal government body of Pakistan (FBR) Dr Ashfaq Ahmed clearly stated that the tax amnesty scheme is ongoing and will be concluded within a week on June 30, 2019. He urged the Pakistani community to get the advantage of the amnesty scheme and declare their assets before the conclusion of the latest scheme. Otherwise, he warned they should get ready for legal action even if one is an expatriate.

Dr Ashfaq Ahmed was briefing the expatriates on “Amnesty structure and its advantages” at the Pakistan Consulate Dubai in association of Pakistan Business Council Dubai (PBC) and Pakistan Association of Dubai (PAD).

Replying a question by the The News, Dr Ashfaq said that the UAE authorities have been sharing the details about the properties of Pakistanis on the request of government of Pakistan while the information related to bank accounts of Pakistanis and their parked money in the UAE banks have been shared automatically.

Talking to the media, Dr Ashfaq explicated his visit to Dubai that most of the foreign money by the Pakistanis is parked here and that's why the FBR that investigates crimes related to taxation and money-laundering chose Dubai to request expatriate Pakistanis to avail the tax amnesty scheme if they don’t have money trail of the assets.

Dr Ashfaq Ahmed claimed that it is impossible to hide their money in even tax havens nowadays. He said that 28 countries have shared specific data and information about assets of Pakistanis in the current year while 71 countries will share the data with the government of Pakistan next year. He hoped that more than 100 countries will share the data of Pakistanis in the next two years.

He said that Pakistanis’ favourite place to hide their money is the UAE, Singapore, England and Canada. Speaking about the target of the current amnesty scheme, Dr Ashfaq added thatthere are definitely targets for the current Amnesty Scheme but it is not possible to share a target with the media because it would create so much confusion.

Consul General of Pakistan to Dubai, Amjad Ahmed Ali also raised questions faced by Pakistani expatriate community regarding remittances, tax amnesty and biometric system to bank account-holders for expatriates. On this occasion, the Pakistani community also demanded the deployment of Pakistan's tax-related people in consulate so that Pakistani immigrants could resolve their tax issues.