The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has blacklisted some 102 companies, reportedly involved in minting money on fraudulent sales tax refund claims, Business Recorder learnt on Monday. Sources said that the Regional Office of the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (DGI&I)-FBR, Islamabad, had received a tipoff that some 102 registered units were getting fake sales tax refunds, with connivance of tax officials.
The DGI&I Karachi initiated inquiry against these registered units and found huge revenue leakage during the said exercise. Sources said that Karachi Regional Tax Office (RTO) was, therefore, asked to block these units to avoid further revenue leakage, and it was asked to issue notices to these registered units under section 37 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 to verify the veracity of their sales tax refund claims.
Keeping the said recommendations in view, the Karachi RTO sent a letter to Director, Operation, E-Registration, FBR, requesting him to block these registered units, immediately, sources added. They said the DGI&I, Karachi had earlier failed to pursue this scam due to anti-department propaganda and lukewarm attitude of Karachi RTO in terms of providing relevant record.
But now the DGI&I Karachi is of the view that the scope of inquiry should be extended to take the responsible persons to task. Consequently, the DGI&I Karachi sent a letter to its head office, seeking to grant permission for taking remedial measures in this connection. They said the amount involved in this illicit business was estimated at over Rs 1 billion, which would be recovered through investigative audit.
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