18.06.2013 Banking privacy laws and the FBR
The babus at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are at it again. Rather than trying to fix their broken machinery, they would like the rest of the government to make their lives easier, this time by getting parliament to overturn banking privacy laws and letting the FBR have access to private banking records, without any safeguards being put in place.
It may surprise most people to learn that the FBR already had quite a lot of powers when it comes to people’s bank accounts. For instance, if it is able to demonstrate probable cause in a court of law, it can request banking records of any individual or business from as far back as it feels the need for. And, if a case of tax evasion is proven, the FBR does not need to politely wait for a person or company to pay what they owe: it can forcibly take the money away from their bank accounts if a person fails to comply with a demand to pay taxes.
One would think those powers would be more than enough for the FBR to begin a serious crackdown on tax evasion, but apparently that is not what the bureaucrats think. They argue, not unreasonably, that the current system requires them to go through a court system that is too slow. So, rather than advocating a fix to the speed of the court system, the FBR would like to bypass all checks and balances and obliterate any sense of financial privacy in Pakistan altogether, by indiscriminately accessing all banking data.
In the past, this newspaper has applauded the government’s attempt to use Big Data to catch tax evaders and we are not opposed to the idea of the FBR having access to banking records either. What we object to is the manner in which this was done: one line surreptitiously slipped into the budget speech by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, with no details provided on exactly how much data the FBR would have access to and what safeguards will be taken to protect the privacy of individuals from unscrupulous officers.
Big Data is a reality and we are happy the government is thinking of ways to use it effectively. We just wish they would also consider ways to do so responsibly.
Rouhani’s win
The victory of Iran’s moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani in the presidential election is good news on many counts. He was able to secure the support of the opposition as well as the reform groups within Iran. Hopefully, a departure will be made from the hard-line worldview of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who had taken the country towards international isolation. A remarkable feature of the Iranian elections was the high voter participation of 72 per cent. Compared with the 55 per cent in the recent Pakistani elections, this surely sets a benchmark for the region. Rouhani’s election campaign highlighted, not unlike Nawaz Sharif, the economic woes of Iran and on working out a more conciliatory approach towards the West. Iran badly needs relief from the sanctions imposed by the West, especially the United States, for its economy to pick up.
The fundamentals of Iranian polity remain unchanged. The all-powerful “Supreme Leader” and the council of clerics firmly control policy in the country. But this minor shift will work in Iran’s favour as president-elect Rouhani was the lead nuclear negotiator under the reign of Mohammad Khatami and is, therefore, well endowed with diplomatic experience. Iran’s growing young population and the quest of its populace to integrate with the world should be better served with this win.
The real question is whether the new president would be given some space by the powerful Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and endow him with the authority to improve relations with the West. The West must note the message given by the Iranian population. A majority of the country’s population has backed the pragmatic line that Rouhani takes. Thus, it is time for effective engagement with Tehran and giving up on paranoia over Iran’s nuclear programme. Pressured by the pro-Israel groups in the US, the Obama Administration had adopted a coercive approach. Given Iran’s proximity to Pakistan and Afghanistan and the 2014 Nato pullout, it is essential that the US support regional cooperation efforts.