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Billions of rupees ‘tax evasion’: FBR raids housing scheme’s office, seizes record

 

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday raided three premises of a housing scheme in Wah simultaneously and confiscated hundreds of files and dozens of computers in order to probe an alleged billions of rupees tax evasions.

The FBR teams in official vehicles along with police raided the premises of sales office of the housing scheme at around 11am on Friday and continued their operation for more than one hour.

The raiding party officials snatched mobile phones of a journalist and around 24 other people who were trying to record footage of the operation, which were returned after the raid.

“The FBR has allegedly found a mismatch in declarations and amount received from customers as advances, indicating about massive alleged evasion to the tune of billions of rupees. Once the record is scrutinized, then the figure of alleged evasion will be disclosed,” said a top FBR official when contacted by this scribe here on Friday evening to get the version of the Board’s headquarters. The official said that it was an intelligence-based operation and they successfully seized all the required records.

The FBR’s Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) of Inland Revenue Service (IRS) had conducted this raid along with Rawalpindi Police in uniform. The FBR’s I&I dispatched its initial report to the FBR’s headquarters stating that complaint regarding various housing projects in the case of Qamar Zaman and his son Saad was received which was approved for investigation.

After getting approval from the competent authority to process the investigation, the FBR issued tax notices under Section 176 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and the tax machinery also issued notices to various banks for seeking information about deposits and withdrawal of the taxpayer. The summary of bank details showed that there was a massive mismatch in the declaration filed before the FBR in the last five years and deposits shown in their bank accounts. This mismatch turned into alleged concealment of billions of rupees.

Now the FBR will proceed in accordance with the law of the land. When the FBR official was asked about the reasons of this raid at the premises of businesses, they cited the tax collection machinery’s powers under section 175 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 for entering and searching the premises.

 

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