KARACHI: The Directorate Intelligence and Investigation (Inland Revenue) Karachi has unearthed sales tax refund scam. The directorate discovered release of sales tax refund to 30 companies engaged in sales/purchase on fake and flying invoices. The national exchequer had to face a loss of billions of rupees.
“The scrutiny revealed that the companies were bogus,” said an official. “They exchanged the fake invoices with the registered and tax compliant companies.”
The directorate conducted a physical raid and arrested Arshad Ali Khan of Kotila Corporation, which allegedly ripped off around Rs 100 million in tax refund. On Tuesday, the directorate obtained 14-day remand of the culprit from the Customs Court.
The sources said that the directorate was tracing the accomplices in the scam. They said the tax department will blacklist the companies involved in sales/purchase on bogus invoices.
Most of the companies, which managed to wrongfully grab sales tax refund against inputs, were registered with the Regional Tax Office-II (RTO) Karachi.
In November last year, the intelligence wing had discovered around 144 dummy companies registered with different RTOs of Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi, a commissioner at RTO-III Karachi informed the tax authorities. These companies were said to have incurred Rs7.5 billion loss to national exchequer.
