Textile manufacturer booked for tax fraud

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has apprehended a textile manufacturer for sales tax evasion through misuse of concessionary regime, an official said on Wednesday.

“Zone-VI of Corporate Regional Tax Office (CRTO) Karachi arrested one Saif ul Malook, the owner of M/s. Mind Challenge, and for sales tax fraud to the tune of Rs50 million,” Amin Qureshi, Additional Commissioner, CRTO said.

“The tax office nabbed the owner of the company along with three other accomplices for violating SRO 1125(I)/2011, while a five-day remand has also been obtained from a court for further investigation.”

Qurreshi said the company had obtained sales tax registration and was importing finished cloths at concessionary rates under SRO 1125(I)/2011.

He added that the arrest had been made on the special instructions of Member Inland Revenue (Operations) Seema Shakil and Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue CRTO Dr Fazal Abrejo.

Sources in FBR said there were many similar cases where textile manufacturers had obtained sales tax registrations and were dodging the tax authorities.

The government issued SRO 1125(I)/2011 for facilitating five export sectors through reduction of sales tax on import and domestic supplies of raw material.

The sources added that such manufacturers were importing fabric, taking advantage of concessionary regime at import stage.

“Those manufacturers have been identified through scrutiny of their goods declaration for clearance of consignments,” the officials said adding that tax authorities were expecting to recover of billions of rupees through action against sales tax fraudsters.