ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The authorities have detected a scam of over Rs570 million involving sales tax refunds through bogus exports to Afghanistan, Dawn has learnt. The CBR has launched an inquiry into the bogus exports of non-traditional items like aluminium and plastic goods that were cleared by the Torkham custom station but never reached Afghanistan. And exporters in connivance with customs officials claimed these sales tax refunds.

Informed sources said the customs officials posted in Torkham had verified documents of exports. But it was not clear whether the exports were actually made or it was only exports on papers.

According to the sources, the main player of the scam, who got maximum refunds on bogus documents, had already left the country and was reportedly living in Dubai.

They said the present computerised system of refund known as Refund Claim Preparatory System (RCPS) had also cleared the refunds payment to exporters. This means that the computerised system developed with a huge cost is not working effectively as it did not detect the fake refund documents submitted by the exporters. The sources said that all the suppliers involved in the scam belonged to Lahore, who got their refunds documents verified through the CBR’s electronic refund system located in Lahore.