The Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) won its first-ever case of conviction for the offense of money laundering based on tax evasion. To clarify, the accused involved did not pay taxes that matched his vast income.
The Directorate General I & I-IR received financial intelligence regarding a suspect’s cash and bank transactions. As per details, the business profile of the suspect, Mr. Habibullah proprietor of M/s Rai Trading Company, did not match his financial transactions.
As a result, the Directorate General I & I-IR carried out an investigation. The initial investigation revealed that the accused had six other bank accounts with huge transactions. Total income in all the accounts amounted to a whopping Rs 2090 million. However, the accused paid taxes for only Rs 192,877, and that too for the year 2015.
Due to this, the authorities booked the suspect for huge concealment of income, undeclared bank accounts, and misdeclaration of income to hoodwink the tax authorities.
Read more: FBR collects historic Rs4.7 trillion revenue
Moreover, further investigation revealed that the suspect was also involved in money laundering.
#FBR has won the first ever court conviction for the offence of money laundering, involving massive tax evasion. The accused is punished with imprisonment, fine and forfeiture of entire ill-gotten/concealed money of Rs. 2090 Million. pic.twitter.com/MdCfLkoydP
— FBR (@FBRSpokesperson) December 2, 2021
After the trial proceedings, the accused received sentences under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 (AMLA), and Income Tax Ordinance (ITO). Due to AMLA, the accused will serve 2 years of rigorous imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 5 lacs. Furthermore, under ITO, he will receive simple imprisonment of 1 year, with a fine of Rs 1 lac.
FBR’s drive against tax evasion
The FBR is currently on a mission to eradicate tax evasion in Pakistan. According to reports, the FBR registered 215 FIRs against 267 accused and attached properties worth Rs235 billion involving a tax amount of Rs76 billion. The FBR also attached 640 bank accounts.
With such a zero-tolerance policy towards tax evasion, the FBR will ensure that strict action will be taken against those involved in tax fraud.
Important to note, this year, the FBR’s revenue collection witnessed considerable growth. The FBR collected net revenues of Rs. 2,314 billion during July-November 2021-22 as against the collection of Rs. 1,695 billion during July-November 2021-21.
According to provisional figures released by the board here, the collection also exceeded the set target of Rs. 2,016 billion for the period by Rs. 298 billion.
Taking to Twitter, PM Khan congratulated the FBR team for the remarkable achievement.
Congratulations to the FBR team for achieving a 35% increase in revenues in November over last year and 37% increase in the five months over last year. pic.twitter.com/b9SfNy2OmH
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 1, 2021
According to the FBR statement, these figures would further improve before the close of the day and after book adjustments have been taken into account.
Read more: PM Khan congratulates Pakistan for historic tax collection