KARACHI: After uncovering of the alleged scam of Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, now it has been unearthed that Pacific International Lines (PIL) along with its agent in Pakistan, Pacific Delta Shipping Pvt. Ltd, have also reportedly evaded sales tax to the tune of billions of rupees.
Customs Today reported extensively about alleged mega sales tax scam of Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd where the company in connivance with its agents, audit firms and some officials of Sindh Revenue Board evaded billions of rupees sales tax in terms of services provided to its local clients. After extensive coverage of the issue by Customs Today, the Sindh Chief Secretary through diary no 29342 had asked the Sindh Revenue Board to probe the issue and take action against Maersk Pakistan within 15 days.
According to the application ref#164/CIJ/10/2018 sent on 27-10-18 appealed to take legal action, recoveries of amounts looted, recovering losses of tens of billions of rupees to the national exchequer per year while also stopping such further losses in the biggest mega scam of sales tax on services fraud from the accused persons SØREN SKOU, CLAUS V. HEMMINGSEN, SØREN TOFT, VINCENT CLERCP, MORTEN H. ENGELSTOFT, others of Maersk Line; Arslan Khan, Hazanfar Khan, Raheel Salim, Maqsood Ul Hasan Khan, Fuad Khan, Hasan Faraz, Shakeel Masih, Omer Khan, Ali Jawad Alvi, Zafar Iqbal, Ayesha Chowdhry, Zahid Hussain, Salman Ahmad, Aamir Ali, Umais Aziz Khan, Mohammed Naeem, Farheen Mahmud, Mubasshar Iqbal Affaq Syed, Syed Mohammad Abbas Jafri, Muhammad Tanveer Sharif, Salman Ateeq, Hamza Haq, Ziad Mahboob, Aamir Ibrahim, Yasir Saeed Khan, Amal Sadiq Dawood, Effat Mehmood, Maria Urooj, Zain Warsi, Mehreen Zulfiqar, Awais Saleem, Zafar Iqbal, Syed Osman Iqbal Zaidi, Anum Yaqub, Fahad Ali, , Obaid Iqbal, Zahid Hussain, Muhammad Ali Qureshi, Danish Siddiqui, Amir Arif, Arshad Ayub, Syed Mudassir Ali, Syed Hammad Hussain, Ayesha Qadri, Sheikh Samiullah, others of M/S Maersk Pakistan Private Limited; audit firms and other shipping companies of Pakistan, some officials of Sindh Revenue Board involved in the mega scam directly or in connivance with the same.
Now it is revealed that Pacific International Lines (PIL) along with its agent in Pakistan, Pacific Delta Shipping Pvt. Ltd, also evaded sales tax worth billions of rupees, possibly with connivance of a few officials of the SRB officials.
Relevant quarters say that Commissioner II of the Sindh Revenue Board was bound by the Notification No. 3-4/20/2017 to collect sales tax on services from the shipping lines as mentioned in point 15 of the table which is also available on the official website of Sindh Revenue Board (http://www.srb.gos.pk/contents/Notifications/SRB-3-4.20.2017.PDF).
Business community says that Commissioner II, instead of keeping mum over the issue, should fulfil his duties and collect sales tax from Maersk, Pacific Delta Shipping Pvt. Ltd. and also recover the evaded sales tax worth billions and also lodge FIR against the Maersk, Pacific Delta Shipping Pvt. Ltd. officials like Adil Khan for the huge scam so that others do not commit such criminal evasion of sales taxes. Such funds so collected will go a long way in developing our country.
According to a document of Sindh Revenue Board named Working Tariff (amended up to 4th December, 2017), the shipping lines are bound to pay at least 13% sales tax on services as mentioned in table which is also available on its official website (http://www.srb.gos.pk/contents/Downloads/20171204007_WORKING_TARIFF_AMENDED_2017.pdf).
After extensive coverage of the issue by Customs Today, the Sindh Chief Secretary through diary no 29342 had asked the Sindh Revenue Board to probe the issue and take action against Maersk Pakistan within 15 days. But the SRB did not comply with orders of the Chief Secretary which shows alleged connivance of some of the officials with these power shipping companies. Question arises that when these companies are registered with the SRB for last several years then why they are not taking action against them for evading taxes worth billions of rupees? How it is possible to avoid huge taxes worth billions without the help of SRB insiders? Why SRB high-ups are not conducting proper audit and taking action against these companies?
It is pertinent to mention here that an appeal was submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to intervene and investigate connivance of Maersk, Pacific Delta Shipping and Sindh Revenue Board in the alleged mega scandal.
Sources say that NAB has also started inquiry into this matter and if SRB does not act then NAB is ready to act and take action against Maersk, Pacific Delta, SRB for connivance and causing billions of rupees losses to the exchequer.
