MULTAN: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Regional Tax Office (RTO) refused to provide income tax record of five persons arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) allegedly involved in money laundering (hundi/hawala) from different countries.
According to details, Federal Investigation Agency raided different money exchanges on the directions of director who were involved in the business of illegal money transfer.
Sources told that FIA teams raided money exchanges on the basis of substantial information which were located in the Cantonment Mall Plaza. During the raid, FIA teams arrested accused Muhammad Shakeel son of Muhammad Saleem who is owner of M/s Royal Money Exchange and Muhammad Waseem Raja proprietor of M/s Raja Enterprises.
FIA has lodged criminal case no: 13/2019 and 14/2019 against said accused after detecting huge currency transfer through hawala/hundi and also found that they have established illegal money exchange network.
The Federal Investigation Agency has requested Regional Tax Office to provide last five years income tax record of Muhammad Shakeel, Muhammad Saleem, Hina Shakeel, Muhammad Waseem and Mehwish Waseem for completion of investigation in money laundering cases.
Commissioner Regional Tax Office Abid Raza Bodhla has taken permission from Member FBR for providing them tax record of said accused because FBR has barred Regional Tax Office from sharing information and FBR is bound to keep the taxpayer record confidential and secret according to section 216 of the Income tax Ordinance 2001.