PESHAWAR, Oct 25: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) is looking into an alleged fraud of about Rs4 billion committed by 17 NWFP-based firms by misusing the facility of sales tax refund on exports to Afghanistan.

According to an official of the CBR’s regional directorate of intelligence and investigation, the exporters had claimed refund on fake documents, known as ‘flying invoices’.

The cases, he said, were handed over to them by the CBR’s directorate-general of intelligence and investigation. The official said the fraud was committed between 2002 and 2006.

According to the initial inquiry, the department learnt that more than 50 per cent of the claims were false and fake documents had been submitted with the sales tax department.

The suppliers, who were claimed to have supplied goods to the exporters, were also contacted by the department and it was found that most of them were fake, adding that some suppliers were not cooperating with the department.

The official said that investigations in two of the 17 cases had been completed and a fraud of Rs50 million had been detected.

He said the decision in the two cases had been conveyed and the regional tax office had been asked to recover the money from the exporters and take legal action against them for defrauding the government.—APP