FBR says, unearthed six Benami Accounts with over eight bln transactions

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue has claimed major success during its anti-money laundering campaign by tracing six benami accounts with over eight billion rupees transactions, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue has registered a case against four traders of the city, officials said.

The four traders accused of around Rs. 1.26 billion tax theft within a span of five years, FBR officials said.

The case has been registered against Zor Talib Khan, Ammar Khan, Mohammad Hassan and Mohammad Hamza, who have been registered with addresses of Karachi’s Saddar mobile market and district Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The tax authorities have issued the Rs. two million bailable warrants of the each accused, officials said.

According to the FBR accused trader Zor Talib Khan is proprietor of M/s Salar Enterprises and Salar Mining. He had opened six benami accounts during year 2012 to 2017, the officials said.

Over eight billion rupees bank transactions made in six bename accounts during the five years, FBR officials further said.

The tax officials said that most of the businesses of the accused were in Karachi, but when Zor Talib Khan was issued a notice over the matter, he expressed his ignorance about it.

What is a Benami Account?

FBR in an official statement said that a benami transaction encompasses where a property is transferred to, or held by, a person and the consideration for such property has been provided, or paid by, another person (the trustees and wife, children, brother or sister to whom property has been transferred from known resources will be excluded).

Furthermore, a transaction or arrangement in respect of a property carried out or made in a fictitious name; or an arrangement in respect of a property where its owner is not aware of, or denies knowledge of such ownership; or a transaction in respect of a property where the person providing the consideration is not traceable or is fictitious.

The potential types of benami properties include plots, houses, shopping plazas, shops, housing schemes, bank accounts, vehicles, business shares, jewellery, foreign currency, legal documents and intangible properties having financial value.

Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Rules, 2019 enforced recently and broadening of tax base (BTB) zones of Inland Revenue Service has been assigned the duty to establish cases against Benami properties and submit challan to Adjudication Authority within 120 working days.