KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started auditing sugar mills in Sindh over suspected sales tax evasion.
The sources said the audit of around 30 sugar mills in the province was launched through deputing tax officials at the factories to scrutinise their supplies and stocks.
The sources said the FBR deputed tax officials on at least four sugar mills for on-site monitoring of their supplies and raw materials for production.
The FBR asked the remaining sugar mills to provide information about their supplies.
An FBR official said the audit was launched after suspected massive sales tax evasion by the sugar mills.
The collection of sales tax from sugar fell 15 percent during the last fiscal year of 2017/18 despite record production of the sweetener. Sales tax collection declined to Rs19.87 billion during the last fiscal year from Rs23.45 billion in the preceding fiscal year, according to an annual report released by FBR.
The sugarcane production, during the fiscal year of 2017/18, witnessed a record figure at 81.102 million tones, showing an increase of 7.4 percent over the preceding year’s production of 75.48 million tons, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan.
The sources said the tax offices issued show cause notices to sugar mills for launching the audit exercise.
