Banks Can Share Info About Civil Servants’ Assets ; FBR

ISLAMABAD: The “Sharing of Declaration of Assets of Civil Servants Rules, 2023” were issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday regarding the sharing of information regarding the assets of civil servants between the FBR and banks in accordance with BS 17-22.

To issue the final rules, the FBR issued SRO 80(l)12023 on Thursday. As required by subsection (3) of section 237 of the Income Tax Ordinance, the same has previously been published in Notification No. SRO76(I)12023 dated January 26, 2023. The rules have been made known five days later.

The FBR’s SRO 80(I)/2023 stipulates that the rules for sharing information with banks shall apply. For the limited purpose of sharing information about civil servants in accordance with BS 17-22, these guidelines shall apply.

A civil servant filing an electronic declaration with the FBR is required to provide the FBR with a reduced or simplified version of the declaration based on the fields agreed upon with the State Bank.

The bank must use a single authorized, pre-notified, and secured email address. The email account’s authorization, use, and data security must all be under the control of the bank’s head of compliance.

A maximum of four focal persons (officials) with the authority to communicate with the FBR via the authorized email must be provided by the bank to the FBR. The bank must provide the following information regarding focal individuals.

Any time the credentials of the focal persons above change, the bank must notify the FBR immediately and prevent them from using the secured email.

If information is unavailable or cannot be provided for any reason, the FBR must provide simplified or shortened information via authorized email within five working days, or it may refuse. As the information custodian, the FBR’s decision will take precedence in the event of a dispute.

In terms of the success of new accounts opened and how the information assisted the bank in establishing its client relationship, the bank is required to provide feedback on the use of the information it received and the results of CDD every two years.

Case-by-case responses to the bank’s six-monthly information requests must be provided by July 31 and January 31 of each year.

The FBR also stated that, in order to respond to bank information requests, the FBR would have a designated banks’ CDD desk staffed by authorized officers.