ISLAMABAD: The government has framed law to initiate criminal proceedings against officers and officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for committing corruption.
A new section 216A to Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 has been proposed through Finance Bill, 2019 as part of the budget 2019/2020 to initiate criminal proceedings against FBR officials.
The FBR said that in order to effectively check misuse of authority to gain financial benefit, a new enabling provision is being introduced to prescribe rules for initiating criminal proceedings against officers and officials of the Board who deliberately commit acts or fail to act for personal benefits.
Similar action would also be taken against persons who offer bribes or other financial benefits to the tax employees.
The proposed section is as follow:
“216A. Proceedings against persons.—(1) Subject to section 227, the Board shall prescribe rules for initiating proceedings including criminal proceedings against any authority mentioned in section 207 and officer of the Directorates General mentioned in Part II and Part III of Chapter XI including any person subordinate to the aforesaid authorities or officers of the Directorates General who willfully and deliberately commits or omits an act which results in personal benefits and undue advantage to the authority or the person or taxpayer or both.
(2) Where proceedings under sub-section (1) have been initiated against a person or authority, the Board shall simultaneously intimate the relevant Governmental agency to initiate criminal proceedings against the taxpayer.
(3) The proceedings under this section shall be without prejudice to any liability that the authority, person or taxpayer may incur under any other law for the time being in force.”
