SARGODHA: A regional tax audit team found 17 tehsil sub-registrars involved in corruption and embezzlement during tax collection in the five districts of Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Mandi Bahauddin.

Taking action on complaints of corruption against the officers, the audit team of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) regional office did electronic and physical scrutiny of the records under supervision of Additional Commissioner Withholding Muhammad Ali Mir and Assistant Commissioner Sana Hassan.

They found embezzlement and irregularities committed by the sub-registrars in five districts mentioned above during registration of various deeds in the fiscal year 2023 and 2024.

It was also revealed during the scrutiny that all the sub-registrars during the registration of sale deeds of filers and non-filers had deducted tax without difference and did not deposited the deducted tax with the government treasury in many cases. After the electronic audit, the FBR issued notices to 17 sub-registrars.

The embezzlement of huge amounts by preparation of fake tax challans in the registrar offices also surfaced during the scrutiny of the records that revealed the tax evasion and embezzlement.

The sources disclosed that the sub-registrars, with the connivance of notaries, lawyers, petition writers, registry clerks and other revenue staff caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer in the form of tax fraud.

This was the first electronic audit of the FBR which was completed within a short period of 30 days.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2023