FAISALABAD: The Federal Bureau of Revenue has registered a case of tax evasion against more than 20 people, including two bank managers.

On Monday, the bureau arrested seven of the suspects on charges of committing a tax fraud of about Rs212 million.

The arrests have been made after a thorough probe into the issue of [alleged] tax fraud by the persons attached with the Shaheer Textile Mills.

The irregularity was committed between tax period of 2012 and 2018 and the volume of taxable supplies amounted to Rs1.8 billion.

Those named in the FIR included Ms. Anisa Begum, Muhammad Mehboob Anjum, owners of Shaheer Textiles, Muhammad Waseem of Chak No 220-RB, Pathanawala, Muhammad Yasir of Mohallah Afghanabad No. 1, Muhammad Saeed, Khurshid, Asghar of Mall Road, Rawalpindi, Ahmad Din Ahmad Nawaz of Muslim Park, Nasir Abbas of Mohallah Baghwala, Mujahid Chowk, Jhang, Irfan Ahmad of Samanabad, Sumaira Moazam (manager of HBL), Muhammad Anjum of Chak No. 219/RB, Kokianwala, Ahsan Sarfraz, (manager of Meezan Bank), Muhammad Akram Zia of Nishatabad, Shoaib Elahi of Muslim Town No. 1, Muhammad Shahid of Shalamar Town, Lahore, Danish Shakeel of Karachi, Ghulam Rasool Bukhsh of Quetta, Malik Noor Hussain of Shalamar Town, Lahore, Muhammad Amjad, Mubashar Ishaq and Saeed Shahzad.

Those arrested [by the FBR] on Monday included Mehboob Anjum, Waseem, Yasir Maqbool, Ashan Sarfraz, Muhammad Akram, Shoaib Elahi and Nasir Abbas.

The FIR registered under sections 37-A and 37-A of the Sales Tax Act, 199, reads that Muhammad Asghar [Inland Revenue Officer, Unit-3, Chenab Zone] reported that a credible information was received regarding tax fraud by the registered person namely Shaheer Textiles, 13/5 Maqbool Road, Faisalabad, having STRN-08-03-6302-002-73 which is non-existent and untraceable on the declared business address.

The [other] registered persons were also found non-existent at declared business addresses as reported by the three different teams and had no godown/store facilities for stock, thereby signifying that the registered person [Shaheer] is a sham entity working only in papers with the sole purpose of sales tax fraud.

Following the report, the mills was blacklisted by the commissioner (Inland Revenue), RTO, Faisalabad on May 24, 2018.

As per data available, the unit had made huge purchases amounting to Rs1.5 billion from various registered persons on reduced/zero rate during 2012 to 2018.

It was clearly established during the adjudication proceedings that the sales tax [evaded] amounted to Rs212m.

The Shaheer Textile had been registered as manufacturer/exporter/wholesaler in the category of individual with RTO, Faisalabad, on Jan 19, 2002 in the name of Ms Anisa Begum. During an initial inquiry the lady and her husband Mehboob Anjum were called under the law for inquiry. During the probe it surfaced that affairs of the mills were being run jointly by Ms Anisa and her husband and Nasir Abbas had been filing the sales tax returns.

During the inquiry, the suspects and suppliers of mills have been found involved in fraudulently committing tax fraud through ‘fake/flying’ invoices. Illegal transactions were detected after examining the bank record.

During the probe, the FBR officials detected 111 suppliers who had been providing material to the mills.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2019