The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has managed to recover Rs. 6.2 billion from a family that are part of a major business group in the country. This is the highest ever tax liability recovered by the FBR.
Biggest Ever Recovery
FBR’s Directorate General Intelligence & Investigation (I&I) Inland Revenues (IR) recovered this amount from a couple, Bashir Dawood and Maryam Dawood of the Dawlance Group, under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.
The Inland Revenue Intelligence recovered this amount after the Special Court Customs & Taxation Karachi heard the trial against the Dawood family over tax evasion, tax fraud and money laundering.
No government agency has ever recovered such a huge amount in any case where individuals are involved in a financial crime like corruption, laundering, smuggling, etc.
Director General, Khawaja Tanveer Ahmed, termed this as a landmark victory in the history of FBR and admired the efforts of I&I-IR team.
Mentioned in Panama Papers
It also needs to be mentioned that the name of Dawood family was also listed in the Panama Leaks. In the reference case of sale of Dawlance Group to Turkish industrial group, an offshore shell company in the British Virgin Islands was used by the accused to launder the money.
About the Case
On 26 May 2017, the Directorate of Karachi received cheques worth Rs. 6.2 billion.
Bashir Dawood and Mariyam Dawood were major shareholders in three companies including M/s United Refrigeration (Pvt) Ltd, M/s Dawlance (Pvt) Ltd and M/s Dawlance Electronics (Pvt) Ltd till 2013. They sold M/s Dawlance Electronics (Pvt) to BVI Company (M/s Pan Asia Equity (Pvt) Ltd) for $3.3 million and dividends of $35 million were remitted to BVI by 2016.
The three companies were later acquired by a Turkish company for $242 million. M/s Dawlance Electronics (Pvt) Ltd, which was sold at $3.3 million in 2013 was actually sold at $94 million.
The authorities traced suspicious transactions worth Rs19.72 billion in five bank accounts of Bashir Dawood and Mariyum Dawood. Once everything was linked together, the case was put in front of Court of Special Judge Customs, Taxation Karachi. The court decided in favour of FBR and the alleged were arrested. The Special Public Prosecutor asked them to deposit a sum of Rs. 6,204,374,789 to get acquitted from this case. The couple deposited the amount via four cheques.
The department then launched an application to withdraw its complaint while the accused signed a memorandum that they would not challenge the tax payment in any court of law. Once the government exchequer receives the amount, the accused will be entitled to operate their accounts as normal. Unfortunately, this also means that the government will not punish the accused.
Via The News
