ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has raided a real estate exhibition and sized laptops, iPads, tablets and cellphones.
The officials from Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) for Inland Revenue grilled the firm’s staff led by a Kenyan national, who could not provide satisfactory answers.
Sources said that the firm was allegedly provoking Pakistani citizens to transfer their untaxed money overseas. The tax authority also obtained the names of around 50 people who approached the company.
The raid was carried out under Section 175 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, which empowers FBR officers to enter and search any premises at any time, without prior notice.
According to the tax official, the real estate development firm was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), which was a mandatory requirement under the Companies Ordinance, 1984.
FBR spokesman Shahid Hussain Asad also confirmed the raid and said that the department had made several raids on similar attempts to persuade rich Pakistanis to invest in the Middle East. He said that FBR was conducting a successful operation that is helping to guard against the outflow of foreign exchange from the country.
