According to data compiled by the Cabinet Division this month, the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU), which was established by former Prime Minister Imran Khan to repatriate plundered money from other nations back to Pakistan, helped collect Rs426.4 billion during the previous three years.
According to the Cabinet Division’s yearbook for 2020-21, which was issued in May 2022, well over a month after Shehbaz Sharif took over as prime minister, over Rs334 billion was recovered in the previous fiscal year alone.
The ARU was established in September 2018 to “provide a forum” for law enforcement agencies, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), and provincial anti-corruption establishments (ACEs) to “trace new cases and track all existing cases with the goal of eventually repatriating illegally acquired offshore assets.”
The institutions and agencies would “eventually recover the amount either through taxation or plea bargain or direct recovery/repatriation to the government exchequer.”
According to papers, NAB recovered Rs389.5 billion over the previous three years “under the supervision and aid of ARU.” According to the Cabinet Division yearbook, it was a “dramatic rise” over the total Rs295.6bn recovered in the previous 17-year period (from 2000 to 2017).
Meanwhile, the FIA has collected Rs6.4 billion in the previous three years, with Rs3.6 billion recovered in 2020.
According to the records, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) created liabilities and made recoveries that were “off the charts” in light of several investigation panels set up by the federal government.
The revenue authority had discovered taxes of Rs22.8 billion on offshore assets, including properties in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, as well as assets mentioned in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, recovering Rs5.6 billion in FY21.
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