Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has given a clean chit to the dishonest officers of Faisalabad Dry Port in a corruption scam of Rs 930 million
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News / Online - 25th March, 2019) Federal board of Revenue (FBR) has given a clean chit to the dishonest officers of Faisalabad Dry Port in a corruption scam of Rs 930 million.On one hand the hope of recovery of the plundered amount has been shattered away, but on the other side a honest officer, who was also the member of investigation team break the silence and wrote a letter to Auditor General of Pakistan wherein he exposed entire corruption of Rs two billion monthly, which is being carried out by the nexus of corrupt Customs officers posted at Faisalabad Dry Port and traders.
Some of the black sheep sitting in FBR is also taking the lion's share from this corruption.He revealed is his letter that the Customs officers involved in corrupt practices are taking a lame excuse of a SRO that was issued during the regime of PML(N), whereas the corrupt officials have also succeeded in befooling Finance Minister Asad Umar and Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar.In 2013 the government had formed an eight member forensic committee to investigate the matter of tax evasion at Faisalabad Dry Port under the supervision of Dr Asif Jah, which was given task to complete inquiry and submit its report within a month period, but the committee used delaying tactics and put up its report after the lapse of almost five years.
The officer said in his letter that the committee not only tried to save the skin of corrupt officials of Customs but also cleared them in the outcome of the inquiry. The report also neglected some important evidences and proofs ."The report should return to the committee to reinvestigate the matter in a transparent way to point out real culprits of tax evasion", he added.The sources in FBR on the condition of anonymity told this scribe that during the period of 2011 to 2014 total 1108 containers were cleared and duty and taxes fixed by FBR is Rs 1.
4156 million per container , which caused the loss of Rs 930.30 million to the national exchequer .Similarly the officials deputed at Faisalabad Dry Port cleared smuggled cotton fabric at the rate of three Dollars per kilogram instead of prescribed rate of 5.81 USD per kg . In this way the hefty loss of Rs 988,800 on each container was conveyed to national exchequer.
