Biggest tax scam has surfaced in Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) under the Imran Khan government where tax authorities have illegally paid over Pakistani Rs16 billion in sales tax refunds to hundreds of big retailers in the past five months. Being the biggest scam in the FBR during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, the matter has already been brought to the notice of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and the FBR chairman has formed an inquiry committee, according to Express Tribune.
According to government sources and a list of beneficiaries of the illegal input tax adjustments, the payments were made between September 2021 and January 2022 in violation of the Sales Tax Act and Sales Tax General Orders (STGOs) issued during the period, as noted by Express Tribune. Tax authorities failed to implement at least four orders that had disallowed 60 per cent input tax adjustments for those large retailers who did not integrate with the tax system through Points of Sale (POS), according to the sources.
A grade-20 officer from the FBR’s operations wing has been authorized to conduct the inquiry. However, this cannot be considered an independent inquiry as the operations wing along with the policy and POS cell and Pension Reform Adjustment Loan ( PRAL) are responsible for the implementation of the law. The chairman stressed that whosoever was found involved in it would not be spared.
Through the Finance Act 2019, the government had decided…
