FBR traces labourer, gatekeeper owning 12 luxury vehicles

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue’s anti-benami zone has traced more than 12 expensive vehicles in Karachi that are registered in the name of a daily-wage worker from Faisalabad and a gatekeeper, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The FBR benami (prohibition) zone revealed that a Faisalabad labourer Zahid Iqbal, who works as a daily-wage employee, owned two luxury vehicles including a Land Rover and BMW.

Moreover, 10 more cars were also registered in the name of a gatekeeper, whereas, the name of the car dealer was also used for the benami vehicles, said FBR benami zone officials, adding that the purchases of vehicles came under the benami transaction act.

Read: CPLC shares details of luxury ‘benami’ vehicles with FBR

Zahid Iqbal said that he was completely unaware of owning the cars. Following the discovery, the board’s benami zone initiated a probe into the matter and issued notices to the labourer, gatekeeper and car dealer.

The revenue board asked Zahid Iqbal to provide the necessary documents to the investigators. The FBR said in a statement that legal action will be taken under the benami act over the non-provision of relevant documents.

Earlier on March 4, the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) anti-benami zone has traced as many as 15 expensive benami vehicles registered in the name of a citizen, Abdul Ghaffar, who in a statement denied owning the cars.

Read: Undeclared assets: FBR digs out benami properties worth over Rs62.36 bn

“Someone misused my national identity card to get these vehicles registered in my name,” the sources quoted him as saying. He called for the cancellation of the registration of all these vehicles.

The vehicles will be confiscated and put up for sale by auction and the money they will fetch will be deposited in the national exchequer, sources told ARY News.

Last year in September, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) benami zone had confiscated 19 luxury vehicles in Karachi besides directing real owners to contact authorities within one week for verification of the records

The 19 luxury vehicles worth approximately Rs120 to Rs150 million include two BMW, two Mercedes-Benz, seven Toyota and one Cadillac.