Tax evasion: IT standing committee for legal action against 5 telcos

A sub committee has been constituted to probe into the matter.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology on Tuesday called for legal action in a suspected 47 billion tax evasion case by five telecom companies.

The committee, chaired by Member of National Assembly (MNA) Chaudhry Barjees Tahi, expressed strong dissatisfaction over the issue while sharing the issue with the Ministry of IT, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR). It questioned as to why legal action was not initiated against two specific mobile phone companies despite the fact that the FBR had declared it a procedural lapse instead of tax evasion.

A sub-committee, headed by Anusha Khanwas was constituted to probe the matter and submit its report within the next 15 days.

The sub-committee would comprise Dr Talat Mahesar, Sardar Muhammad Shafaqat Hayat Khan, Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir and Pir Syed Fazal Ali Shah Jelani.

The NA committee meeting was also attended by MNAs Chaudhry Iftikhar Nazir, Farhat Kahn, Pir Syed Fazal Ali Shah Jelani, Dr Roshan Din Junejo, D. Talat Mahesar, Parveen Masood Bhatti, Anusha Rehman Khan Advocate and Muhammad Shafqat Hayat.