Tax evasion: chemist's office in Islamabad raided

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation, Inland Revenue Tuesday raided the office of a prominent chemist in Blue Area Islamabad, found involved in concealment of medicines, cosmetics and non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes selling record, to tactfully evade huge amount of taxes.
Sources told Business Recorder that the action is part of the campaign against the tax evaders on national level on explicit directions of the FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa. The raids on sellers of smuggled cosmetics and cigarettes are not Islamabad-specific, but directorate of intelligence IR is conducting such raids country-wide. The agency would continue the exercise against the tax cheaters and evaders, deliberately concealing huge income for the purpose of tax evasion.
Syed Ijaz Hussain Director General Intelligence and Investigation, Inland Revenue has demonstrated strong resolve to continue the enforcement policy against tax evaders, without succumbing to any political pressure from powerful lobbies and influential groups.
Sources said that the agency has raided the office of a prominent chemist after obtaining due permission from the legal magistrate. The agency has been able to trace the office where the chemist has kept the centralised record of its 18 branches. The search was duly conducted and main computer and documents relating to sales and purchases etc of the Chemist were taken into custody for scrutiny and verification.
The agency has credible evidence that the chemist deliberately file separate returns for its 18 branches in Rawalpindi and Islamabad to evade taxes. Other factors behind the raid are gross under-statement of business receipts, splitting receipts of one business by creating different paper entities, evasion of sales tax and income tax, sale of non-duty paid cigarettes, cosmetics, perfumes and other luxury items.
It is important to mention that the agency had raided the business premises of a prominent chemist in Islamabad's Super Market (F-6 Sector) and took into possession important evidence of tax evasion. The Intelligence arm of the FBR has initiated an exercise of analysing the cases of prominent business enterprises in various sectors of the economy. On the basis of initial analysis, the tax contributions of these big businesses are internally analysed by the Agency. On confirmation of the involvement of these business concerns in tax evasion, periodic raids are being conducted to capture undeniable evidence.