Officials accused of aiding tax fraud mafia

ASub-Committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue was yesterday informed by officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that its Intelligence Wing has unearthed a mafia syndicate in Karachi which is involved in the harassment of the businesspeople, and engages in the clearing of bogus tax claims and refunds causing billions of rupees in losses to the national exchequer.

The committee was informed that some officials of the FBR have been arrested on charges of being members of this mafia, which is also accused of extortion money from various businesspeople.

Arrests made

The FBR officials informed the committee that there were some arrests made by the Intelligence Wing of the FBR in 2013 but the cases of these employees are still pending at various stages and some of them got stay orders from the courts which has been delaying the completion of the inquiries against them.

The committee directed the FBR officials to complete the inquiry against all these officials and present the report in its next meeting, which will be held in the last week of this month.

The meeting of the committee was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz and attended by Senator Mohammad Mohsin Khan Leghari and Senator Saud Majeed.

The committee while expressing displeasure with delays by the FBR in completing investigations of cases of corruption, directed the FBR officials to complete the inquiry reports with in three months of all those cases which are more than a year old.