FBR busts Rs9.41bn wealth statement fraud

Business Recorder reported that the Federal Board of Revenue has uncovered a scheme in which taxpayers altered past wealth statements to add unexplained assets valued at Rs9.41 billion. Officials have filed a money laundering case under the 2010 anti-money laundering statute, and more cases are being processed. Regional directorates have opened 48 criminal inquiries nationwide, and the remaining cases are in process.

Investigators from the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation (Inland Revenue) detected the scheme by analysing FBR's database with help from Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited. The review identified 85 taxpayers who, from March 2025 through June 2026, reworked wealth declarations for the 2014 to 2019 tax years, adding cash, gold, prize bonds, property and business capital not previously reported.

Such revisions are barred, as the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 does not permit a wealth statement to be changed once five years have passed since the original return fell due. Each revision identified came well after that limit. In a Lahore case, a taxpayer revised his 2015 statement in May 2026 to include Rs102.8 million of fictitious funds, then relied on that amount to justify purchases of seven properties costing Rs64.41 million. He could not say where the money came from, and the tax at stake in that case alone exceeds Rs46 million. The FBR says its data analytics will keep tracking such manipulation, and offenders will face penalties and prosecution.