Bawan Shah Group case: FBR again charge-sheeting officials cleared earlier

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has again charge sheeted sales tax and customs officials who were earlier cleared and reinstated after a formal inquiry in sales tax refunds scam of Bawan Shah Group of Companies (BSGC).
Sources told Business Recorder on Saturday that FBR had reinstated its officials in June, who were placed under suspension in 2006 on account of their alleged involvement in BSGC refunds fraud, besides directing concern department to not initiate further inquiries against them.
They said that Raza Hashmi, advocate in this case, has also sent a request letter to FBR chairman Ahmad Waqar on October 30, 2008.
According to the letter, acquired from sources, Raza has requested FBR not to take any action against officials till the final decision of the Supreme Court.
He also said that the High court of Sindh had restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from filing any further reference. However, against the order of the High court, the NAB authorities filed a case before the Supreme Court, whereby the Court also restrained the concerned authorities from taking any further action against all persons concerned. Therefore, FBR will not take any legal action against its staffers till the final decision of the Supreme Court, he added.
Despite all efforts made in this regard, the Regional Tax Office (RTO), Karachi issued explanation letters (charge-sheets) against them, sources said. They said the FBR has alleged that its staffers, in sanctioning refund cases of Rs 39.56 million pertaining to BSGC, had acted intentionally, which was otherwise not admissible.
They said the BSGC was awarded 'silver' category on September 23, 2004 under the sales tax refund rules (STRR) 2002, and was treated as a special case. This company earlier fell under 'others' category. However, authorities had later issued directives to database administrator to replace it with 'silver' category in STARR software for refund claims, sources said.
They said the committee members thoroughly scrutinised all documents of the company as per rules before awarding any category to it, which showed that scrutiny by staff members through STARR software was correct. They said staff of sales tax refund department had processed all cases, and added that recorded data should be updated.
When asked, they said that NAB has accused the sales tax members of patronising this illegal business, saying that STARR had rejected refund claims of BSGC, and were processed by concern officials.