ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Intelligence & Investigation (I&I) Karachi unearthed another scandal involving illegal transfer of Rs5 billion to bank accounts and its withdrawal in Quetta without payment of taxes.
The amount has been transmitted into three bank accounts in Quetta.
According to media, FBR identified one person in whose name the accounts were opened and operated. He said money had also transmitted from the Quetta bank accounts to Batkhela in Malakand division, a tax-free area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, between 2014 and 2018.
The official said that so far nine accounts had been detected which were inter-connected from Karachi to Quetta and Malakand for evading taxes and hiding sources of income.
Earlier, the tax intelligence department has exposed a scam involving illegal transfer of over Rs20 billion to bank accounts and its withdrawal in Malakand without payment of taxes
With the fresh discovery, the total amount of the illegal transfer to bank accounts and its withdrawal has now crossed the threshold of over Rs25 billion.
According to the official, the tax intelligence department has established that most of the amount has been transacted for the purposes of “smurfing the money for tax evasions”. He said the FBR was further investigating the case to identify other suspects associated with the network.
The tax department would seek details about the source of income from these suspects. However, it was found that these people did not exist on the tax roll of the country. No record of these people is available with the income tax department, which shows that the money transmitted has not been declared.
The tax intelligence department has lodged a first information report (FIR) against the suspects believed to be involved in the scam.
According to an official statement of the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation, illegal and tax evaded money has been deposited in bank accounts in remote tax-exempted areas to avoid payment of taxes or to conceal its real source and identity of culprits.
The directorate has launched investigations into most of these cases.
