Islamabad: Telecom companies mostly belong to international telecom group have been performing a lip-service for their massive contribution to the national exchequer through taxes but these operators have been proven wrong and corrupted by National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which unearthed a whopping Rs 47 billion financial embezzlement.
All mobile phone operators —Mobilink, Telenor,Ufone, Zong and Warid—including National Telecommunication Communication (NTC) have been involved in corruption of billion of rupees with the help of corrupt officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
NAB disclosed the details of the financial scam, saying five cellular companies of the country have been involved in massive tax evasion during last five years on interconnect charges, which was admitted by their officials before Chief Commissioner Large Tax Payers Unit that were supposed to deposit this tax.
FBR officials, however, seemed more loyal to cellular operators than companies as they had agreed to exempt them from payment of this tax despite confession of telecos officials.
A high-level team of FBR comprising Member Inland Revenue, Member Admin and Chief Sales Tax appeared before the inquiry team of NAB and apprised on the issue of giving waiver to telecom companies.
Their explanation found unsatisfactory and they were restrained to sign waiver notification.
After preliminary enquiry, a four-point agreement has been reached between NAB and FBR that no waiver whatsoever will be granted to cellular companies on grounds of interconnect charges.
The tax authorities must cooperate with NAB for recovery of evaded tax, otherwise, the NAB has right to proceed against FBR under National Accountability Ordinance. After recovery of evaded tax from telecom companies, NAB will determine role of the FBR officials in this mega tax evasion case that was likely to be concluded before the intervention of the NAB.
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