KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi has discovered dozens of companies operating without registration and evading billions of sales tax and Input Adjustment.
Sources told Customs Today that FBR’s Karachi office has been tightening the noose against tax evader companies which are causing billions of rupees loss to national exchequer. In 2013, FBR has caught 65 such companies evading Rs 400 billion of tax.
FBR has prepared list of such companies which evaded 5 percent sales tax by selling black listed units to non-operative and suspicious customers. FBR formed special teams to arrest all such evaders and started investigations against them.
In May 2014, FBR discovered 40 fake companies which earned billions of rupees through illegal sales tax refund and Input Adjustment. It was learnt in investigations that every company earned Rs30 million on average through fake claims and flying invoices. “It is sad that after prolonged investigation FBR did not took any strict actions against these companies which further encourages such fraudulent elements,” sources added.
Rehmat Textile was also among these 40 companies registered under fake physical report and investigated by RTO-I of Karachi. FBR said that Rehmat Textile is no real company and registered on fake address, was involved in refund cases through fake invoices which cost national exchequer about Rs 30 million. FBR cancelled sales tax registration of Rehmat Textile.
Same year in June 2014 FBR’s RTO-II black listed 976 companies involved in tax fraud through fake invoices. A senior officer of FBR on condition of anonymity, as he is not allowed officially to speak about cases, said that Karachi RTO initially found Rs50.2 million tax fraud of Global Trading Company. He further said that other evader companies included Sherazi and sons, Neo-tech Global, Kousar Corporation, Metal Ampex, Nawaz International, M.K International and Aftab Company.
Similarly, IR’s I&I also arrested an accused named Abdul Ghani Khanani who used to import yarn and fabric by using fake manufacturing companies causing loss of millions of rupees as sales tax, besides more than 60 companies were bring to table on the charges of tax evasion.
In May 2015, I&I detected such companies who were not filing tax return since long and receiving tax refunds by using fake documents.
Sources added that FBR was striving to bring the companies involved in tax scams and irregularities into tax net.
