A gang, pretending to be tax officials, is active in the city, harassing individuals and making attempts to fleece masses through fake income tax assessment orders. The issue was brought into notice when an individual namely Qamar-uz-Zaman, associated with tailoring business, visited at Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) zone, Regional Tax Office (RTO)-II.
He requested the tax department to withdraw the assessment order as he was running 'tailoring business' at North Nazimabad and was unable to pay tax liability amounting to over Rs. 0.5 million as mentioned in the order, due to small volume.
According to the fake assessment order issued to him, BTB zone had commenced legal proceedings against him as he failed to comply the requirement of notice under section 114(4) and also missed the final opportunity to discharge the obligation of justice. Therefore, the assessment order under section 122(c) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 has been issued against him.
Sources in BTB zone confirmed that fake provisional assessment orders were circulating to harass the individuals. They said that a gang or a group of unscrupulous elements, who were active in the city, were involved issuing fake assessment order, notices of attachment of bank accounts and others to fleece money from the taxpayers or individuals.
Replying to a question, they said that when this issue was brought into knowledge, the department had immediately declared it fake as the veracity of them appeared suspicious because no such tax officials, mentioned in these documents, had ever served in BTB zone.
They said the possibilities of tax officials' involvement could not be ruled out as the language and the pattern used in these fake notices and order were similar to the official communiqué.
When contacted, Badruddin Qureshi, chief commissioner RTO-II and head of BTB, Karachi apprised that tax departments had issued income tax notices with system generated barcode to ensure the authenticity of the document hence all such notices without barcodes should be treated 'fake'.
Moreover, Chief Commissioner RTO-II advised the taxpayers or individuals to contact the concerned tax department, if notice was served to them in order to avoid, being harassed and cheated by wrongdoers.
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