ISLAMABAD: A multi-billion rupee public sector scam appears to be brewing as the National Accountability Bureau has initiated a case study into the affairs of some officials of the Federal Board of Revenue to detect corruption relating to tax exemptions.
NAB estimates that the country could be suffering an annual loss of around Rs200 billion siphoned off from the tax collection system.
“The preliminary report shows that more than 3,500 companies have availed tax exemptions and 188 of them have been given exemptions of more than Rs100 million annually,” an official said. “It’s only the tip of the iceberg, because as the inquiry progresses names of companies getting exemptions of even larger amounts will also start coming up.”
Sources in NAB told Dawn that the next phase of the inquiry would focus on detecting links or nexus between the FBR officials and beneficiaries of tax exemptions.
The exemptions have been availed in sales tax, additional sales tax, regulatory duties, income tax and federal excise duty through statuary regulatory orders (SROs).
The FBR commissioners enjoy powers to grant tax exemptions to any individual or company, depending on the circumstances, through the SROs, but most of the time these powers are exercised out of merit.
NAB investigators are seeking to hunt down the officials involved in issuing these fake tax exemption certificates in the Inland Revenue Services (IRS) department of the FBR.
“We have noticed that a chain of importers and clearing agents act as ‘matchmakers’ between the companies and the FBR to obtain the exemptions facility,” a NAB official said. “The owners of large businesses do not come to the FBR for seeking exemptions, neither the commissioners make deals with everybody; this job is done by clearing agents, tax lawyers and other small players. They have links within the FBR office.”
The people who act as brokers for large businesses ensure that the amount agreed for getting tax exemptions reaches the officials concerned.
The NAB’s A&P wing has asked the FBR to submit details of the companies, organisations and institutions which have availed tax exemptions between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2012. The data will be collected from the FBR offices concerned since the exemption certificates are issued by regional tax offices and large taxpayers units.
The initial NAB report shows that model customs collectorates (MCC) PaCCs and MCC appraisement worked out exemptions worth Rs36.43 billion during the first seven months of fiscal year 2012-13. The MCC PaCCs is an automated clearance system for customs agents. It cleared consignments worth Rs22.11bn.
Similarly, the MCC appraisement allowed exemptions under various concessionary SROs to the tune of Rs14.32bn during that period.
It is believed that some IRS officials are also involved in issuing fake exemption certificates without verifying the status of sales tax-registered persons.
Some of the private and public sector companies which have been granted tax exemptions worth billions of rupees are: Airblue Limited (Rs920 million), Novartis Pharma Pakistan (Rs2.83bn) and Pakistan Mobile Communication Ltd (Rs1.77bn), PIA (Rs7.18bn), Wapda (Rs1.02bn), Gul Ahmed Textile Mills (Rs164m), Artistic Garments (Rs988m), Arabia Gold Export (Rs493m), Golden Arts (Rs440m), Rogorna Arts (Rs284m) and Eastern Gold Craft (Rs410m). Interestingly, the US Embassy also availed tax exemptions of Rs220m during seven months of the last fiscal year.
NAB official said there were chances many companies had genuine reasons to avail the exemptions, but the facility should not be used as a cover to conceal false cases.
In January, the then finance minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh told the National Assembly that the government had granted a relief of Rs656bn in customs duty, income tax and sales taxes to the public and private sector companies over the past four years.
The value-added tax law suggests that the power to grant tax exemption be transferred from the FBR to parliament to improve transparency.
FBR’s spokesperson Riffat Shaheen Qazi said the power of tax exemptions had been designated to chief commissioners and commissioners of regional tax offices, and the senior management of the FBR which included members did not have any involvement in the matter.