4 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
UAE golden visa issue: FTO irked by FBR's ‘inefficiency'
ISLAMABAD: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has taken notice of the issue of Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) inefficiency to timely seek data from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) about the golden visas issued by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the resident Pakistanis, making huge investments aboard.
After the elapse of more than five years of enabling legislation, the FBR was unable to obtain data from the FIA about the golden visa issued by the UAE to the resident Pakistanis on investment of at least 2.0 million dirhams, equivalent to more than Rs 150 million at the present exchange rate and FTO has taken notice of this inefficiency and has called report from the FBR Member Tax Policy and Director General (DG) International taxes.
In this regard, the FTO has issued instructions to the FBR to file comments by July 29, 2025 to the FTO office.
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As per tax experts, section 175A was inserted in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 through Finance Act 2020 and it required that arrangements shall be made to provide real-time access of information and database to the Board by the FIA as per section 175A(1)(a)/(b) regarding international travel and exit of immigration visa holders.
Whereas under sub-section (2), the Board shall make arrangements for that. Moreover, under sub-section (3), until real-time access to information and database is made available, such information and data shall be provided periodically in such form and such manner as may be prescribed.
However, after the elapse of more than five years, the Board has failed to do both the statutory duties of real-time data access and periodic statements from FIA. This delay and inaction constitute maladministration, and an informed citizen, Tarik Ahmed, has brought the issue to the attention of FTO, and notices have been issued to file comments by July 29, 2025.
When contacted for comments, Basharat Qureshi, a Karachi-based tax expert, explained that the issue has two dimensions: the first is ownership of foreign immovable property and its declaration in the wealth statement and sources thereof.
The second issue is whether the foreign exchange was remitted from Pakistan through permissible legal means, and checking of this aspect is the domain of the FIA.
Therefore, coordination of FBR and FIA would be required, and thousands of cases can be easily detected where neither the foreign property is declared in the tax declaration, nor the foreign exchange was remitted legally.
Basharat was of the opinion that in the tax return, further mandatory attributes can be added, asking for do you hold any foreign passport or resident visa, and basis of the same as naturalization or investment, as thousands of Pakistanis hold a second passport or resident visa on the basis of investment.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
