NAB chief says will refer all tax evasion cases to FBR.

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal on Thursday assured traders and manufacturers that the watchdog is acting on their complaints and will not be a cause for disruption in their businesses.

Defending the watchdog's actions in the recent past, Iqbal said NAB has never liked to overstep its jurisdiction and that the reason for it being 'over active' was because the authority had received a lot of money laundering cases from the country's top court.

'I am presenting myself to you for my own accountability. Review the past two years and tell me at what stage and what mistakes we made,' he said, stating that the bureau had not taken on any tax evasion cases against businesses, referring them to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) instead.

Iqbal said that when he took over as NAB chairman in October 2017, he had asked for a list of all cases taken up previously, adding that he had already assured traders that tax evasion cases would be taken back.

However, the NAB chief made it clear that there was a big difference between money laundering and tax evasion.

'If they [ongoing cases against business owners] solely concerned tax evasion, they would not come to us from various courts,' he said as he explained why NAB was pursuing some businesses.

The NAB chairman assured the traders that the next time they invited him, there would be no tax evasion cases with the bureau, adding that all such cases would be referred to the FBR instead.

Additionally, he said that NAB had never interfered with bank default cases unless a bank had referred them to the authority, which he said happens when their settlement negotiations with parties in a case are unsuccessful.

With regards to Panama Papers cases, the NAB chairman said they remain active. However, in the instance of certain cases, information and records from...