Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam has said that government employees won’t have to submit separate wealth statement while filing income tax returns from now on.
The secretary said this during a press briefing after a meeting of the Secretaries at the Secretariat on Sunday.
“The one-page wealth statement that government employees have to submit to the NBR while filing income tax return isn’t necessary anymore. From now on, the government officials will submit the statement to the Ministry of Public Administration,” said Anwarul.
He added that the National Board of Revenue (NBR) hasn't expressed any objection to the new directive.
“I sat with NBR officials and the Secretary of the Public Administration Ministry to discuss the issue and all of us have agreed on the new measure. A circular will be published soon in this regard and after that, the one-page wealth statement that was previously submitted to NBR will be given to the Ministry,” Anwarul added.
According to the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979, government officials are bound to submit wealth statements and take permission for buying or selling properties after every five years. But this rule has been neglected for long, and the government hasn't tried to implement it either.
On June 24, 2021, the Ministry of Public Administration sent letters to all the ministries and their secretaries to immediately apply this rule on all the government employees following a directive from the Prime Minister herself.
Although the ministries are trying to make the rule effective, government officials are yet to respond.
