ISLAMABAD: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has directed Directorate General Intelligence and Investigation (Inland Revenue) to initiate a fact-finding inquiry to identity the gangs of cyber criminals including those present within Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

According to an order of the FTO issued on Thursday, the complaint mentioned above was filed against the Commissioner Zone-Ill, RTO-II Karachi in terms of Section 10(1) of the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000 for accusing the

complainant of alleged ‘Tax Fraud’ declaring transaction of Rs. 81.434 billion with the impact of GST amounting to Rs.14.658 billion against ‘Null’ sales tax returns filed for tax periods September 2023 to January 2024 and consequent illegal blacklisting of sales tax registration number (STRN) of the Complainant by the Commissioner.

The Complainant further alleged that the STRN was blacklisted without proper service of any show cause notice (SCN) or suspension order.

FTO ruled that the failure to provide the security and protection of the Complainant’s User ID/Password and sanctity of the taxpayers’ confidential data from misuse /hacking leading to a tax fraud case worth Rs. 14.658 billion on behalf of the complainant causing administrative excesses tantamount to maladministration.

Accordingly, this issue of alleged cybercrime and loss of revenue in

billions of rupees was investigated by examining documents related to forward and backward transactions procured from PRAL, RTO-1 Karachi, RTO-ll

Karachi, LTO Lahore, CTO Lahore, RTO Lahore, RTO Faisalabad, scrutiny of bank accounts and parties’ arguments. It appears that this cybercrime involving huge loss of government revenue has been conducted by a gang of cybercriminals facilitated by the employees (present and/or past) of PRAL & FBR who have direct or indirect access to the whole computerized system. This gang operated in networks, initially spotted and extracted the sales tax registered dormant persons from the FBR website, and used their password for bogus/fake transactions to benefit end consumers/manufacturers. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to find out the main beneficiary of the supply chain at the end of the tunnel where either a refund was received or adjusted by a manufacturer through scrutiny of the forward and backward transactions i.e. purchases and sales in Annex A and Annex C of their sales tax returns.

FTO has directed the Chief Commissioner-IR, LTO Lahore to ensure the initiation of legal proceedings for conviction on merit in accordance with the law against the crime of tax fraud committed.

The Chief Commissioner-IR, CTO Lahore to ensure initiation of legal proceedings for conviction on merit in accordance with the law against the crime of tax fraud committed by the involved company.

Member IT, FBR to inquire into the issues pointed out or necessary correction to ensure sanctity of data, FTO added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024