Shabbar Zaidi makes shocking revelations about businessmen’s wealth & tax evasion

KARACHI, DEC 31 - Former Chairman FBR, Shabbar Zaidi, has made some startling revelations while addressing a webinar organized by the Positive Media Communication recently.

According to the former FBR chief, Pakistani businessmen have stashed $150 billion in foreign bank accounts, a profit which they earned through local businesses.

As FBR Chief, Shabbar Zaidi visited the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and assured its members of easing tax-related hurdles to facilitate the businessmen in exchange for abandoning the sale of smuggled goods in Karachi.

However, President KCCI unequivocally rejected the proposal and argued that it is impossible for the businessmen to stop selling smuggled items in Karachi.

Besides the reluctance of senior FBR officials to reform the tax machinery, the Pakistani business community is also uninterested in implementing tax reforms.

Shabbar Zaidi said that except for Jehangir Tareen, none of the Pakistani politicians have listed companies because they are against documenting the undocumented sector of the economy.

He recalled that once a Pakistani businessman wanted to acquire a foreign company worth over $200 million. However, the deal fell through as the businessman had not officially declared his wealth.

Zaidi lamented that the tobacco industry remains the biggest tax-evading industry in the country, adding that he launched a track-and-trace method to curb the illicit trade of cigarettes but the court put an end to the initiative.

Among various reasons behind the tobacco industry being the largest tax-evading industry, one is that the government earns 74% of the total sales of cigarettes in the country. As a result, the industry resorts to illegal means of sale to evade such high taxes.

Tobacco, sugar, battery, white goods, motorcycles, cycles, and cement are the most smuggled products with a massive gap between production and consumption.

IT departments of income tax and customs offices mysteriously catch fire every 4 months, revealed Zaidi, adding that he tasked an intelligence agency to secure the IT system of both offices.

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COURTESY PROPAKISTANI

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