KARACHI: MCC Appraisement East has lodged an FIR nominating certain importers for fraudulently acquiring WeBOC ID in the name of physically non-existent manufacturing unit and filing Goods Declarations (GDs) in the name of physically non-existent manufacturing unit to avail inadmissible concessions.
Sources said there were a large number of such elements who had got themselves registered with Inland Revenue as manufacturers despite the fact they had no manufacturing facility. These elements are mostly commercial traders and get themselves registered as manufacturer to avail concessions under SRO 1125/2011.
It was also known that Inland Revenue did not conduct any inquiry or verification and registered these elements taking bribes.
The FIR has nominated Mushtaq Ahmed of M/s Mushtaqt Textile, Mehdi Raza, Murtaza Ali and Arif.
Information was received through Collector Ashad Jawad that a fake/non-existent unit was operating in the name and style of M/s Mushtaqt Textile as a manufacturer of textile goods to indulge in illegal imports and to acquire illegal tax benefits; and a WeBOC User ID was also acquired fictitiously to illegally clear imported goods which did not actually belong to the proprietor of M/s Mustaqt Textile.
In order to ascertain the veracity of said information, Additional Collector Sheeraz Ahmed with the assistance of Deputy Collector Jam Imran pursued the case.
An effort was made to contact Mushtaq Ahmed the proprietor of M/s Mushtaqt Textile through retrieving his contact numbers from WeBOC ID Registration Profile, but it surfaced that said profile contained fake contact numbers.
On scrutiny of WeBOC data base, three goods declarations (GDs) were found pending in the name of M/s Mushtaqt Textile which were blocked for further probe. Said GDs were filed on self basis (without engaging any clearing agent), which warranted appearance of proprietor Mushtaq Ahmed but an unauthorized person namely Mehdi Raza kept appearing before DC Examinations to pursue clearance of goods, who was instructed to bring the actual owner of M/s Mushtaqt Textile.
The matter was referred to the Directorate of Intelligence investigation Inland Revenue Karachi, which confirmed the unit got itself registered only to get unlawful benefits of SRO 1125/2011.
Considerable loss has been suffered by the government to the tune of more than Rs9.0 million due to misuse of SRO 1125. It was known Mehdi Raza and Mushtaq have been arrested and the evaded amount has been recovered.
MCC Appraisement East has initiated scrutiny of manufacturer importer to ascertain whether these were actual manufacturing concerns or get themselves registered fraudulently to avail inadmissible benefits.