ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Legal Dr. Arslan Subuctageen has been appointed chairman of JIT constituted for investigation of mega fraud at Customs Station Torkham.
According to FBR letter C.No.3(24)E&C/2018, the Board has been pleased to appoint Dr. Arslan Subuctageen (Member Legal and Accounting Customs) of FBR as chairman of the joint investigation team constituted under instructions of FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) to pursue the fraud at customs station Torkham which was unfolded by I&I Peshawar in the month of January 2020.
The Board previously constituted a three member team comprising Rashid Habib Khan Director Directorate General of I&I (Intelligence and Investigation) Peshawar, Mohammad Saleem the Collector Appraisement and Facilitation of Customs Collectorate Peshawar and Khaleel Ibrahim Yousafani the Collector of Enforcement and Compliance Peshawar. Initially the Board constituted three members team to pursue the fraud investigation of vehicles pinpointed by Directorate of I&I Peshawar under supervision of DG Customs Intelligence Zahid Kokhar but there was no chairman appointed at that stage but now the Board announced chairman of the JIT team to pursue the matter.
This mega scam was pinpointed by Director General (DG) Customs Intelligence Zahid Khokar for alleged clearance of 355 containers at Torkham border without payment duty/taxes in writing after which the PTI-led government issued orders for transfer/posting of 13 officials of Customs Group.
It is one of the biggest alleged scandals surfaced in the FBR during last one and a half year’s rule of PTI-led government. The Member Customs Operations Jawad Uwais Agha was made OSD with immediate effect.
Prime Minister Imran Khan also decided to conduct inquiry into this alleged mega scam through FIA. The DG Customs Intelligence Zahid Kokhar had been raising red flags about alleged scam for couple of months as he wrote letters to the FBR chairman and Chief Collector North Asif Jah for bringing this scam in his notice.
The FC and gate record of CCTV footage confirmed arrival of containers from Afghanistan while case is under investigation which will be concluded soon. It is important to mention here that last year under supervision of Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi and Member Customs Operations Jawwad Agha, the Customs Preventive and Customs Appraisement were separated, which made it quite difficult to keep a check on consignments passing through the border.
