By Mohammad Saleem
FAISALABAD: Spinning mills agents had sold yarn to an ‘inoperative’ firm and received payments through accounts being operated by an individual having no connection with the company.
Rehman Textile, a registered firm, had been inoperative since 2009.
This was detected during the investigation of tax fraud under way at the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation of FBR.
Sources privy to the development told Dawn that probably with the help of some FBR employees, the suspects had managed to check the data of closed mills. Sifting through the documents, they had found Rehman Textile Mills which had been closed in 2009.
They said Rehman Textile situated at Chak 296-RB near bypass on Samundri Road had been registered on Aug 3, 2004 in the name of Habib Ahmed and Mohammad Munir.
The mills had sales tax no. 0802520501355 with 2105056-2 NTN. The last business deal by the Rehman Textile had been done on May 14, 2009 and till Nov 1, 2012 its account remained inactive.
Sources said the suspects had obtained the entire data of the mills and then used Naved Iqbal (CNIC 41504-0428170-7) and NTN-4029800-7 for transactions.
They succeeded in getting the account title as Rehman Textile in three branches of two private banks situated at Samanabad, Razabad and Kharkhana Bazaar.
The ‘swindlers’ used the account for the first time on Nov 21, 2012 and a sale of Rs23.68 million had been found in the account and the same account remained active till Feb 22, 2013 with sales of Rs 29.7 million, Rs64.8 million and Rs 111 million. Since March 30, 2013 to Nov 1, 2013, the account had not been used for any sale. And finally the ‘fraudulent’ account having transaction of Rs762.6 million had been detected in July 2014, they added.
An official said real owners of the Rehman mills were working as employees somewhere else. He said both had also been interrogated thoroughly who said they had closed the mills owing to financial constraints and failed to report to the FBR.
He said three prime suspects in the fraud had been identified during the investigation who had been using Naveed Iqbal, a man arrested by the FBR, as a puppet.
The FBR has named 51 spinning units of different areas as alleged beneficiaries of the fraud.
However, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association has again denied the involvement of any of its members in the fraud and said they had sold yarn lawfully and deposited the required sales tax amount with the national kitty.
An official of the FBR requesting anonymity told Dawn that instead of cooperating with the government, some of the millers had started raising a hue and cry only to hush up the issue.
He said the FBR had sent letters to the mills in which the alleged embezzled amount was mentioned and mills were categorically asked to clear their position on the issue.
He said almost 90 per cent of mills had replied to the letters and more than one dozen had also deposited the ‘misappropriated’ amount. Some of the APTMA members were also among the millers who deposited the amount, however, the official refused to name them.
“We have not arrested or disclosed the name of any mills prior to obtaining tangible evidence. Transactions of three banks are enough to prove the fraud,” he claimed.
He said prior to arresting any suspect, each and every mill was given the opportunity to clear its positions.
Another FBR officer said the millers during a meeting stressed for better facilities with easy way of tax collection. He said how FBR officials would be able to facilitate them and make refund payments to them when ‘fraudulent elements’ would not be fixed.
He said the mills named in the tax fraud case must initiate a probe to check how their sale department officials had been receiving payments from an individual.
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