MULTAN: Tax authorities should take rigorous action against M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd. for non-cooperation with audit teams of the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) as the company is adopting delaying tactics in providing mandatory tax record for investigation. Intentional delay and non-cooperation from M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd in providing tax record to audit team showed their criminal intent and their company representatives should be arrested for disobedience of set laws. Treason trial should be initiated against accused representatives of M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd for evading billions of taxes through tax fraud.
It was stated by Advocate Nosheen Kanwal in his exclusive talk about the mega tax evasion of M/s Maersk (Pvt) Pakistan Ltd.
Tax evasion is an act illegal and misrepresentation of tax obligations from M/s Maersk (Pvt) Pakistan Ltd and it is a criminal act which deliberately caused huge loss to the national economy. She expressed that tax evasion and tax fraud not only cheats the public revenue that is to be used for public welfare but also puts compliant taxpayers that obey the law at a disadvantage. It makes it harder for those compliant businesses to be profitable when they are competing with businesses that do not bear the expense of paying their fair share of taxes.
Mrs. Nosheen stated that Customs Today disclosed mega sales tax scam of M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd which was also admitted by Sindh Revenue Board in his initial investigation which started forensic audit of M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd for the recovery of the evaded amount in billions. But M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd is not liaising with tax authorities in the audit and creating unnecessary hurdles during tax audit by making lame excuses. Mega tax evasion scam of M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd creates a non-level playing field for compliant taxpayers in the country and taxpayers are disappointed with the tax machinery due to their failure in capturing them.
She expressed that mega tax evasion of M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd causes substantial loss to the national economy by issuing nameless (benaami bills) invoices without mentioning numbers to evade sales tax and their modus operandi shows that they were highly expert and habitual in tax frauds. M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd is also charging exorbitant charges from importers and exporters for clearance of legal shipment but they failed to deposit due taxes to the government on services provided to local clients.
The government should direct the NAB, the FIA and other law enforcement agencies to initiate joint interrogation into mega tax evasion case for detecting their tricky tax evasion and judge from superior judiciary should supervise the proceedings of JIT for an impartial trial. Because M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd is also challenging our judicial system through their delaying tactics and their company representatives must be arrested on non–cooperation with audit departments.
After the completion of investigation against M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, the government should recover the evaded amount from the accused which looted through tax evasion with anecdotal evidence indicating that it amounts to many billions in lost tax revenue.
She stressed that tax authorities have an opportunity to preserve national and financial assets through recovering of looted amount from M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd to improve revenue collection and increase the efficiency of their departments.
