National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari has decided to launch a complaint verification drive against private TV channels to check tax evasion.
The accountability watchdog chief made the decision while presiding over an executive board meeting held on Wednesday. Reportedly, private TV channels charge 15 percent sales tax to advertising agencies, but do not deposit the amount in the national exchequer. The tax evasion has been depriving the exchequer of billions of rupees.
In another case, the board authorised complaint verification against Sardar Fateh Ali Umrani, former provincial minister and Naseerabad district nazim. The former minister had been accused of illegally occupying 30,000 acres of state land over the last 40-50 years in Tambo tehsil in Naseerabad district.
In a case against UNAICO Pakistan Pvt Ltd, the board decided to transfer the complaint/investigation from FIA to NAB under provision of section 18(d) of NAO 1999. In this case, the accused were allegedly involved in accepting amounts from general public in a phoney scheme amounting to Rs 32 million. The company was involved in dubious and suspicious activities such as Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes by offering membership to general public against hefty amounts of Euros 149 to 2,000 under the garb of membership fee.
The board also decided to close three enquires due to lack of incriminating evidence – the first against Abdul Majeed Umrani, manager of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Ustad Muhammad Branch; the second against Syed Waqar-ul-Hussain Shah Bukhari, former district and sessions judge; and the third against Tahir Basharat Cheema, former executive engineer of WAPDA. The individuals in all the three cases were accused of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.
