FBR Creates New Directorate to Monitor Real Estate Agents, Jewelers and Accountants - Android

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has created a Directorate General of Designated Non Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs) at… Read More

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The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has created a Directorate General of Designated Non Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs) at Islamabad to register and regulate the business activities of real estate sector, jewellers and accountants to prevent any attempt of money laundering/terrorist financing in these sectors.

The FBR has decided to completely document business of real estate agents and jewellers, who will be required to maintain a record of actual beneficial owners of immovable properties and jewellery, respectively, and report all suspicious transactions of their buyers/sellers to the FBR.

According to a notification issued by the FBR here on Tuesday, consequent upon the operationalization of Directorate General of Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs) at Islamabad, the following officers of Inland Revenue Service (BS-21/20) are hereby assigned the Additional Charge of the posts:

Dr. Bashirullah Khan (IRS/BS-21) Director-General, Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation (IR), Islamabad has been given additional charge of the post of Director General, Directorate General of Designated Non Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs).

Zafar lqbal Khan (IRS/BS-20) Director, Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation (IR), Islamabad has been given additional charge of Director (Regulations), DNFBPs Islamabad. Ahmad Kamal (IRS/BS-20) Director, Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (IR), Lahore has been given additional charge of Director (Regulations), DNFBPs, Lahore and Asem lftikhar (IRS/BS-20) Director, Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (IR), Karachi has been given additional charge of the post of Director (Regulations), DNFBP.

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Under the regulations, every DNFBP shall be registered with the board.

The DNFBP shall provide any information or documentation that may be required by the board for the purposes of registration or keeping the DNFBP registration up-to-date, including but not limited to criminal records of the senior management and beneficial owners.

About the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Beneficial Ownership, the real estate agents, jewellers, and accountants

• Shall conduct CDD in the circumstances and matters set out in Section 7A(1) of the AML Act, when they engage in the following activities;
• Real Estate Agents, when they are involved in transactions for a client concerning the buying and selling of real estate;
• Jewellers and Dealers, in precious metals and stones when they engage in any cash transaction with a customer or client equal to or above Rs. 2 million; and accountants, when they prepare for, or carry out, transactions for their clients concerning the activities described in Section 2(xii)(c) and (d) of the AML Act.

The DNFBP shall identify the customer whether entering into a business relationship or conducting an occasional transaction and whether a natural or legal person or legal arrangement and verify that customers identity using reliable, independent sources documents, data or information as required under these regulations.

The DNFBP shall identify the beneficial owner and take reasonable measure to verify the identity of the beneficial owner by using the reliable and independent document, data or sources of information.

The DNFBPs shall take appropriate steps in accordance with Section 7F of the AML Act to identify, assess, and understand their risks for customers, countries or geographic areas, and products, services, transactions or delivery channels.

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The DNFBPs shall:

• Have policies, controls and procedures, which are approved by senior management, to enable them to manage and mitigate risks that have been identified in its own risk assessment and any other risk assessment publicly available or provided by the FBR;
• Monitor the implementation of those controls and to enhance them if necessary; and take enhanced measures to manage and mitigate the risks where higher risks are identified.
• The DNFBP may take simplified measures to manage and mitigate risks if lower risks have been identified.

Simplified measures shall not be permitted, whenever there is a suspicion of ML/TF.

About the record-keeping, the records maintained by the DNFBPs as set out in Section 7C of the AML Act shall be sufficient to permit reconstruction of individual transactions including the nature and date of the transaction, the type and amount of currency involved and the customer involved in the transaction so as to provide, when necessary, evidence for the prosecution of criminal activity.

The real estate agents, jewellers, and accountants shall keep a list of all such customers where the business transaction was refused or needed to be closed either on account of the failure of the customer to provide the relevant documents or the original document for viewing as required.

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