ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday disposed of 42 representations of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in cases of bogus sales tax invoices, worth over 1.2 billion rupees.
The FBR had filed the representations with the president, assailing the orders of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) passed in suo moto cases, in which bogus sales tax refunds were reimbursed fully or partially by the delinquent officials of the FBR to the fake claimants, according to a press release.
The huge scam was unearthed by FBR's Directorate General Intelligence and Investigation-Inland Revenue and the Red Alerts were issued to the concerned field formations. However, no action was initiated against the FBR officials and the fake claimants.
The FTO on taking suo moto notice of the matter had issued directions to the FBR to investigate and identify the officials involved in verification of the Registered Persons (RPs) and initiate a disciplinary action.
In pursuance of the FTO's recommendations and also the previous orders of the president passed in similar cases, the FBR constituted six fact-finding inquiry committees to deal with 130 suo moto cases relating fake refund claims, the press release said.
Bogus refunds: Alvi tells FBR to expedite action against errant officers
The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the committees were meant to identify the wrongdoings and involvement of officials in each case, and fix responsibility.
Also, these committees were tasked to prepare a draft charge sheet and statement of allegations with respect to each official and submit a report to the Board within 30 days.
President Alvi, in view of the findings of the committees, disposed of the representations of the FBR pertaining to the cases in which full or partial refunds were paid fraudulently.
He directed the FBR for submission of a monthly implementation report to the Federal Tax Ombudsman's Secretariat till the completion of the action on each case.
He also ordered to afford an opportunity of show-cause and hearing to the official in case of any departmental action proposed against him, to satisfy the requirement of due process and the principles of natural justice, the press release added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
Comments
Comments are closed.