PNN: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has suspended six officials and initiated disciplinary proceedings after they were found unauthorisedly absent from their assigned monitoring duties at sugar mills, reaffirming its zero-tolerance policy toward misconduct and dereliction of duty.
According to an official statement, the officials had been deployed under Section 40B of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 to ensure transparent, effective and uninterrupted monitoring of sugar production. Their absence came to light during routine verification and inspection carried out by the Large Tax Office (LTO) Lahore.
The LTO Lahore, which is responsible for overseeing the attendance, conduct and performance of monitoring teams within its jurisdiction, termed the lapse serious and proposed formal disciplinary action against the concerned officials under the relevant rules and procedures.
As an immediate measure, the officials were placed under suspension to ensure accountability and to prevent any compromise in the monitoring process.
Reiterating its stance, the FBR said it remained committed to upholding the highest standards of discipline, integrity and professionalism across its field formations, adding that any misconduct, dereliction of duty or non-compliance with assigned responsibilities would be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law.
In November, the FBR had deployed special monitoring teams at sugar mills across the country to curb tax evasion. An FBR spokesperson had said at the time that sugar was among the notified commodities placed under state monitoring, with field formations assigned to ensure compliance at production units nationwide.