KARACHI: Against the backdrop of Rs9 billion sale tax refund scam, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has launched a crackdown on 153 units involved the scam.
The board has sprung into action after the RTO-II Karachi detected huge embezzlement of refund issuance of around Rs9 billion on fake invoices, involving a major company and other 153 firms for assisting in obtaining the refunds on fake invoices during the period September 2009 and October 2012.
The RTOs Karachi have either suspended/blacklisted the firms or served show-cause notices on them. In this regard, the RTOs had accelerated the process of blacklisting to submit a report to the FBR chairman during his to Karachi scheduled for January 15.
The FBR chairman is expected to issue directives for the recovery of the amount and legal proceedings against guilty firms and the officials of the department for deliberate delay.
The RTO-II Karachi is also expected to register FIRs against the firms for fake invoices.
Keeping in view such fraud cases in the past, the officials intentionally or unintentionally apply delaying tactics and appear indifferent to trace the culprits and get them punished.
At present, the RTO-II is considering to approach the banks for obtaining details of transactions made by the companies.