Under the Anit-Money Laundering Act 2010, the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (DI&I) IR Karachi has unearthed a mega scam amounting to Rs. 8.68 billion, a national daily reported.
As the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) requirements in Pakistan have already made the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) gear up its efforts against money laundering activities in the country, the Directorate General Intelligence & Investigation-IR has ordered all field formations to initiate detection and processing of cases under the respective act on top priority.
The directorate received information regarding the owner of a corporation involved in tax evasion exceeding Rs. 10 million and initiated an inquiry against the company. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the company was a commercial importer and was selling imported goods at much higher prices and also under-invoicing them, covering up huge turnover and under-declaring its income tax and sales tax returns.
The company declared a sale of Rs. 1.648 billion in the tax year 2017, while the bank statements showed Rs. 4.626 billion credit in the same tax year. In 2018, the declared sales were Rs. 682.70 million as opposed to the credited amount of Rs. 4.800 billion in the bank accounts. Similarly in 2019, the declared sales of Rs. 194.597 million were recorded as compared to Rs. 5.356 billion credited in their bank accounts.
Official sources said that the accused was maintaining 16 banks accounts in which the cumulative total amount deposited from July 2016 to June 2019 was Rs. 14.73 billion whereas the accused company in its income tax returns and wealth statements only declared 10 bank accounts, in which Rs. 6.095 billion was credited.
It was also said the receipts in the undeclared bank account prima facie are of sale of imported goods which was concealed from tax authorities as it involved a huge payment of sale tax payable at the time of sales and this non-declaration had caused huge loss to the national exchequer.
It was evident that the accused had evaded a huge amount of income tax which exceeded to Rs. 10 million, hence the accused had committed predicate offense of concealment of income tax evasion, suppression of income/amount chargeable to tax, making a false statement under the relevant sections of the income tax ordinance, 2001 and XIIA to the schedule of the Anti Money Laundering Act, 2010.
The court had issued bailable arrest warrants of the accused and ordered to attach a bank account used for money laundering.
