An initial investigation is also underway to discover similar units, with the sources suggesting that more people may be availing a zero-rating facility to obtain a sales tax exemption through the registration of fake manufacturing units.
The FBR has set zero-rated tax benefits for those doing business in textile, sports, leather and surgical goods, and registered as an importer, exporter, manufacturer or wholesaler.
The sources said that persons involved in the tax theft were commercial importers posing as manufacturers in order to avoid tax.
The directorate has also discovered 11 persons who posed as manufacturers, but when an investigation team arrived at the registered address, no manufacturing unit was found there, showing that dummy units were being used for tax theft, causing billions of rupees worth of loss to the national exchequer.
The FBR has decided to register criminal cases against the tax thieves for the recovery of the stolen amount.
