KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has dismissed five senior officials of Inland Revenue Service (IRS) and Pakistan Customs Service (PCS) on the charges of corruption, misconduct and inefficiency during the last one week, official sources said on Thursday.
The revenue authority has launched massive crackdown against corrupt elements and finalised a number of cases to impose major penalty, including “dismissal from service”, the sources said.
“The FBR has zero tolerance against corruption. Investigations have been initiated against several officers and officials found involved in corruption,” Shahid Hussain Asad, Member Inland Revenue (Policy), told The News. “The FBR will notify the orders in these cases upon finalisation,” he added.
Asad; however, was unwilling to share the number of officials who were under investigation.
Tariq Bajwa after assuming the charge as the FBR chairman on July 2, 2013, had decided to take harsh action against officials involved in unethical practices and issues instructions in this regard.
Corruption was rampant during 2010, 2011 and 2012, tarnishing the image of the FBR. “Most of the cases under investigation belonged to these years,” Asad said.
The FBR on January 6 terminated four officers on corruption charges. Those included Nawaz Ali Shaikh, Superintendent (BS-16), Regional Tax Office, Karachi, (presently posted in Directorate of Internal Audit (Customs), Lahore; Ejaz Ahmed, Examiner (BS-16), Model Customs Collectorate of Export, Karachi; Shahid ul Hassan, Inspector, Model Customs Collectorate of Preventive, Lahore; and Muhammad Sharif Wattoo, Inspector, Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement, Lahore.
Earlier, on January 2, the revenue authority had issued a notification regarding order of the Prime Minister to dismiss BS-21 IRS officer Anwar Goraya from service.
There are billions of rupees corruption in the both wings of the FBR, Inland Revenue
and Pakistan Customs. Sales tax fake refunds on bogus invoices and misdeclaration with the help of the Customs officials are the major examples of corruption.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its quarterly review on economy issued in July 2014 termed tax-to-GDP can only be increased by eliminating tax exemptions and corruption.
“There is no getting away from the fact that Pakistan has no choice, but to increase its tax-to-GDP ratio.
However, difficult there is an immediate need to eliminate tax exemptions; clampdown on corruption and leakages in the tax collection machinery; expand the tax base to include all productive sectors of the economy; and enhance the independence and professional capacity of the provincial tax authorities,” the SBP said.
Two years ago, some officers at the Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi unearthed a scam of Rs40 billion illegal refunds and blacklisted around 4,000 units for their alleged involvement in the issuance and receiving fake invoices.
“The Tax refund was awarded in collaboration with some senior tax officials,” according to a document sent to the finance minister by the RTO officers in early 2014.
The document also noted delinquent intention of the Inland Revenue officers were apparently cleared from the fact that no such income tax assessment or reassessment order was ever been passed against such fake or the so-called purchases made from the blacklisted suppliers / transactions.
Recently, a fact finding committee for missing 50 containers from Customs Collectorate Port Muhammad Bin Qasim had identified that the illegal removal of containers were not possible without the connivance of the Customs officials.
The committee also recommended thorough investigation against officers and officials responsible for the incident. —Shahnawaz Akhter