Case against Jang Group prepared
ISLAMABAD: The Income Tax authorities have prepared a case for prosecution against Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, Principal Officer of Jang Group/Independent Newspapers Corporation for non-declaration of property located at 40-Blue Area, Islamabad thus evading wealth tax on this property. Under the law, non-declaration of property is liable for prosecution entailing imprisonment for three years.
The cases of Jang group and its directors were taken up for investigation in August 1998. Enquiries revealed suppression of sales, contravention of law and evasion of wealth tax coupled with understatement of value of the assets Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman.
The Principal Officer of the Group was consequently issued a show-cause notice by the tax authorities for not complying with the law and concealing valuable property from the wealth tax authorities. He was allowed to file his explanation by December 7. His authorised representatives filed the reply to the tax authorities on Wednesday (December 16) and admitted the default in not fulfilling the legal requirements but took the plea that the default was inadvertent.
It may be noted that late Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman had declared the Blue Area, Islamabad property to the tax authorities in 1991-92. The case will now be submitted to the court of Special Judge Karachi for prosecution of the Principal Officer.
The tax authorities are also preparing prosecution case against the proprietors of Jang/News Group for concealment of a number of other properties not declared even by late Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman and owned by his legal heirs who also did not disclose these properties to the tax authorities.