FBR lets singer Rahat Fateh off the hook with absolute tax reprieve

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has on Tuesday reportedly extended absolute tax reprieve to famed singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan over his alleged assets in secret bank accounts as the regional tax office team found he availed the Prime Minister’s amnesty scheme, ARY News reported.

After a probe into his secret accounts of 2014 which held Rs90 million, FBR found the famous singer benefited from the amnesty scheme and already reported his accounts under them.

It may be noted that earlier last month, FBR served him a second notice to put together the explanation by January 15 on how the singer had certain amount of money in his undeclared accounts.

The revenue regulator had said they were not convinced by Khan’s defense on his accounts earlier which prompted them to serve him another notice.

Now that the probe is complete, the singer is found to have taken cover of the amnesty scheme in declaring his assets and thus FBR has cut his payable taxes to zero.

READ: LHC issues stay order against FBR for freezing Rahat Fateh’s bank accounts

Few years back in his case, the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued a stay order against the Federal Board of Revenue for freezing the banks accounts and transactions of renowned singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Justice Shahid Jamil heard the case where the singer’s counsel informed the court that the FBR had acted illegal to seize the accounts of Rahat Fateh over non-payment of income tax and alleged tax evasion.