KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the scope of its enforcement unit— originally dedicated to crack down on illicit cigarettes, to check other tax evading goods too, claimed a report by The News.
According to the report, the FBR expanded the scope of enforcement unit against illicit supply of goods, including cement, sugar, beverages, fertilisers and tobacco.
“The FBR set up Inland Revenue Enforcement Network (IREN) to control illicit trade of beverages, sugar, fertiliser, cement and tobacco,” a senior official at Regional Tax Office (RTO-II) confirmed with the private news outlet. The official said previously the unit was only monitoring illegal trade of cigarettes.
The FBR issued comprehensive instructions to field offices of Inland Revenue to effectively monitor the supply of the goods.
According to the operational parameters of IREN, the IR offices would consult IREN related to conducted raids, interception or sealing of any premise/place or vehicle.
The units have been asked to conduct monitoring of major distributors of goods, including local brand of cigarettes originating from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Jammu and Kashmir-based manufacturers.
Tax units have been directed to conduct discreet market survey to ascertain the market share of local brands/manufacturers and smuggled/counterfeit of goods in specified items. The FBR further advised the tax offices to conduct comparison of manufacturing of goods with their actual market share.
