ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has asked the Director General of Copyrights and Trademarks, Patents and Design Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan (IPO) to auction movable/immovable properties of big tax evaders and their brands.
Documents state that FBR in its letter “notices for attachment of immovable properties under Section 48(i)(e) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990” asked DG of Copyrights and Trademarks, Patents and Design IPO to sale/auction BIO AMLA and others Copyrights/Trademarks/ Patents/Designs.
Kindly refer to the DC Inland Revenue zone-01 Unit-10 Corporate Tax office Lahore notice dated 11-10-2017 AS Inland Revenue II&P cell CTO Lahore notice dated 13/06/2022 on the subject cited above.
This office had already brought to the notice of registrar of Copyrights and Trademarks, Patents and Design IPO that Zakauddin Shaikh, Zunir Ahmad, Khalida Parveen and Wamiq Zaka were the defaulters/directors of M/s Forvil Cosmetics (pvt) Ltd and sales tax amounting to Rs310.7 million along with default surcharge (to be calculated at the time of recovery) was recoverable against them.
At that time, the aforementioned sales tax demand was recoverable/pending against the management of M/s Forvil Cosmetics )pvt) Ltd, therefore, their BIO AMLA & others copy Copyrights and Trademarks, Patents and Design were attached in terms of section 48)(1)(e) of the sales tax act, 1990 and it was accordingly advised through the above referred letters/notices to the registrar of Copyrights and Trademarks, Patents and Design IPO to block the transfer/sale/sublease of their copyright/trademark mark/patent/design of these defaulters, it was also requested that NOC from the office of DC Inland Revenue CTO lahore should be obtained before initiation any kind of proceedings with respect to transfer/sale/sublease/copyright/trademark/ patent/ design of above said defaulters.
It is further informed that the aforesaid government dues have not been deposited by the above said defaulters till date and moreover the government dues have become almost Rs570 million including penalty and default surcharge which have to be paid by the above said defaulters/director of the company.
Documents state that DC Inland Revenue enforcement CTO Lahore intends to recover the outstanding government dues from the defaulters by way of sale/auction of BIO AMLA & other copyright/Trademark/ patent/ design and other immovable/movable properties. It is therefore requested to you to kindly intimate the present status of BIO AMLA and all other copyrights/trademarks/patents/design of these defaulters to this office latest by 12/12/2022 enabling this office to proceed further in this matter.
Sources said that the team of FBR’s CTO Lahore has started this historic work. A formal opinion was taken from the department in which the legal team confirmed that the trademarks or copyrights that constitute financial goodwill fall under the category of movable property.
Sources claimed that the investigation of cases of tax evasion of million of rupees is also going on against the managing partner of Forvil Cosmetics Muhammad Awais which manufactures and sells Bio Amla shampoo and other products, and the sales tax registration number of this company has also been suspended.
However, He used to suppress matters with collusion of some officials of the department but after the strict action of DG I&I-IR, now CTO Office Lahore has started investigation against those who were involved in collusion with tax evaders.
Officials said that this is a historic move which has never been done before and this initiative will discourage tax evaders and increase the tax revenue of FBR.
