KARACHI  - The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President Abdullah Zaki has strongly criticised SRO 115 (I)/ 2014 issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as banks will now be forced to provide information about their accountholders without national tax numbers (NTN) and who deposit more than Rs1 million or pay Rs100,000 in credit card bills in a month.
In a statement President KCCI urged Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Tariq Bajwa to immediately revoke this unjust SRO which has triggered anxiety amongst businessmen, bankers and accountholders.
Abdullah pointed out that giving access of confidential information to FBR will further aggravate the problems as it is a well-known fact that FBR is already marred with corruption and unscrupulous elements within the FBR will get a perfect opportunity to exploit accountholders for personal benefits.
As per order issued by FBR, banks are bound under section 165A of the Income Tax Ordinance to share with FBR the non-NTN holders’ monthly statements of deposit, credit card payment and currency and suspicious transactions. Moreover, the rule obliges every bank to furnish to FBR an annual statement of written-off loan exceeding Rs1 million. FBR has also asked the banks to give it online access to their database of the clients, containing details of accountholders and all their transactions.
President KCCI cautioned that this unfair step will create more problems not only for the accountholders but also for the banks as people whose accounts information is being shared with FBR, will prefer to stay away from banks or maintain accounts out of this country, which will result in flight of capital and affect profitability of banks.