'Café 1969' raided for GST evasion

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue (IR), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has conducted a raid on a restaurant (Café 1969), Shakarparian, Islamabad for its alleged involvement in sales tax evasion. Sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the said restaurant is located at the tourist place of Shakarparian in the federal capital.
The Directorate of Intelligence IR had credible information regarding sales tax evasion by the said unit. The restaurant is suppressing its sales and subsequently evading the due taxes. The Directorate found that the unit has negative tax payment trend, whereas its business has flourished in the last a few years. In this backdrop, an authorised team of this Directorate comprising Deputy Director Muhammad Junaid Murtaza, Assistant Director Mehdi Hassan, Rizwan ur Rehman Khan, Haaris Iqbal, Muhammad Humayun Sarfraz, Rizwan Shahzad and Nauman Mir, senior auditors, after obtaining search warrants under Section 40 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 from the relevant judicial magistrate 1st class, raided two known premises of the unit including its registered/ accounts office.
During the search, the team impounded various items including computer CPUs, laptops, cheque books and other sale/purchase record to ascertain the tax liability of the fraudster. The whole exercise was completed peacefully. The record impounded is being scrutinised by the officers of the directorate.