The investigation into the sugar crisis report has revealed that the mill owners evaded taxes of billions of rupees.
Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan released an inquiry committee report against the sugar and wheat mafia exposing the black sheep within the government and the opposition.
The report revealed how his close aide Jahangir Tareen and relatives of former Federal Minister for Food Securities, Khusro Bakhtiar, among others received billions of rupees in the name of exports and then hoarded the commodity and created an artificial shortage to jack up the prices.
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The initial investigation report was prepared by the DG FIA, Wajid Zia. He is now leading the commission that is compiling the forensic report in this regard. Details from the investigation have made startling revelations.
A source familiar with the development has revealed that the investigation agency has seized all records of the mill owners.
According to the seized records, the mill owners had two accounts – external and internal. The external account was being used to dupe the tax authorities into believing that the mills owners had sold a meager amount of sugar to dealers while the details of the actual sale, which was far more than shown, were in the internal account.
It revealed that one of the dealers sold sugar worth Rs. 480 million, but declared a sale of only Rs. 3.6 million.
This massive tax evasion was reported in just one entry of the miller, which implies that the five-year tax record will highlight massive discrepancies.
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He added that if the taxes on the production capacity of plants, stock, and accounts of private dealers are calculated, the amount would cross that of the subsidy multi-fold.
An FIA official told on the condition of anonymity that so far, records of 89 sugar mills have been seized. Most of them belong to the leaders of PTI, PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, and retired officers of sensitive institutions.
These mill owners belong to political parties that are rivals, but when it comes to minting money, all political differences are shunned.
He said that investigations have been paced up in an effort to complete the inquiry by next week and hand it over to Prime Minister.