‘Discrepancies’ led to NTS raid, says FBR

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said on Tuesday that it had detected massive discrepancies in the tax records of the National Testing Service (NTS), even as representatives from the testing body said they would challenge the raid before the courts.

In a statement, the tax authority said that its Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (Inland Revenue) had examined the income tax and sales tax records of NTS (Pvt) Ltd.

“In order to cross check their receipts and declarations... bank account statements were obtained from different banks under section 176 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and massive discrepancies therein were noted. In order to further authenticate the observations, the record at [their] premises was taken into custody.”

According to the FBR statement, the company’s premises “were searched under section 175 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, which empowers the officers of FBR to have full and free access to premises, place, accounts, documents, computers or any other inventory.”

The statement said that after the seizure of NTS records, “further evidence was gathered, which includes foreign currency accounts [that] were not declared in their tax returns.

Similarly, the records of directors are also under scrutiny, where sources of investment viz-a-viz their declarations are also found mismatching, for which separate proceedings are underway.”

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference at the National Press Club, NTS Chief Operating Officer Sherzada Khan criticized the raid, saying that it would be challenged before the competent court of law.

He claimed that NTS regularly paid its taxes and that it was an autonomous, not-for-profit company being regulated by a Board of Governors and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Published in Soch News, November 1st, 2017