The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has detected some 3,434 suspicious import transactions whereby taxpayers have claimed input tax amounting to Rs 4.4 billion; it was learnt. According to sources, the board has monitored the import data from April 2016 to April 2017 and found some 3434 suspicious import transactions whereby taxpayers have made input tax claims amounting to Rs 4.4 billion.

They said that the importers claimed input tax in their sales tax returns against taxable imports amounting to around Rs 29 billion through these transactions. Replying to a question, sources said the FBR had compiled a jurisdictional-wise list of these 3434 suspicious import transactions and communicated the same to all concerned Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) and Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs) for the verification of tax deposited in government treasury.

They said that taxpayers had taken credit of sales tax in their returns on the basis of these import transactions through provisional cleared Goods Declarations (GDs), which were submitted to customs department through online WeBOC system. Sources further said the FBR in this regard issued a circular, directing all concerned RTOs and LTUs to verify from the examination of GDs and payments made at import stage that input tax claimed by the taxpayers were fully deposited in government treasury on priority basis.

They answered that the field formation of tax offices after getting said directions from FBR would examine GDs and payments made at import stage and then obtain copies of sales tax paid at input stage in order to verify the tax deposited in national kitty.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017