Declared assets could not be presented as evidence against declarer: FBR

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday said that the declared assets could not be referred as evidence for any legal proceeding under any other law, ARY News reported.

Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi, in a statement 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 statement said that the assets declared would never be presented in any court of law or any other forum as evidence against those declaring their assets.

And as a precautionary measure, this 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 law said that the declared assets whould have legal immunity.

Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar had also earlier 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 said he was giving an assurance to those intending to declare their assets under the current scheme that they would never face any difficulty in future due to this sharing of the data with the FBR.