The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is investigating the criminal aspect of Rs 47 billion tax evasion in the telecom sector, an official of the national anti-corruption body told a parliamentary panel on Thursday. Director of NAB's Special Operations Zahir Shah tolld the sub-committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) that the bureau was also ascertaining whether kickbacks were taken on allowing tax exemption on interconnection charges.
Zahir Shah said that the Bureau would examine the actual extent of loss caused to the national exchequer and affix responsibility for granting exemption to mobile operators. He said that NAB had initiated action on a media report. An inquiry was initiated on the orders of the Chairman NAB and relevant record was obtained from the FBR for initiating the inquiry.
On July 4 this year, the issue came to the notice of NAB and former FBR Chairman Mumtaz Haider Rizvi, who was called back from Karachi on July 6 to record his statement. The NAB is analysing various aspects of the case, particularly why the notification was issued in such haste. The statutory regulatory order (SRO) was later cancelled which was approved by the tax authorities.
However, the SRO was already in the hands of mobile phone operators. The SRO in question was also quickly cancelled. Zahir Shah said that there were three key players in the issue of interconnection charges - FBR, telecom operators and regulators. The inquiry, he said, would determine whether mobile operators were at fault or FBR failed to recover tax from cellular companies.