HabibMetro Bank accused of misconduct in solar panels import

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has shortlisted 80 suspicious companies for their alleged involvement in solar panels import corruption scandals.

The FBR official briefed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance’s Subcommittee after the latter ordered a complete audit of all solar panel imports since 2018 last month.

While FBR briefed the Senate body on the solar imports scandal, another scandal arose during a meeting involving the Smart Impact company and Habib Metropolitan Bank.

The Senate body was brief that the value of said company is Rs2000 only, but it was involved in the transactions worth billions of rupees.

The company made a cash deposit of more than Rs1.54 billion in Habib Metropolitan Bank, Senator Mohsin Aziz said. A total deposit of Rs3.39 billion was made by the company.

Senator Mohsin ordered the HabibMetro bank to probe the corruption involving Smart Impact.

Earlier in January, the Senate subcommittee for finance was briefed that 11 companies were involved in the Rs160 billion solar panel transactions, with Star Business Solution and Moonlight from Peshawar having the major involvement.

In today’s meeting, the FBR official briefed the committee that around 63 companies among those shortlisted were found to be involved in over-invoicing, with suspicious transactions worth Rs69 billion for solar panels import.

The Senate Finance Subcommittee, led by Senator Mohsin Aziz, was told that the tax collection authority has registered 13 FIRs against over-invoicing so far.

Furthermore, the inquiry into the previous scandal revealed that the solar panels’ import was carried through a dummy company, the owner of which declared himself a salaried employee in the documents.

FBR officials confirmed that the accused imported solar panels worth Rs2.29 billion and the false entity declared sales of more than Rs2.58 billion of solar panels.

The inquiry further revealed that involved companies sent out Rs117 billion for solar import, in which the over-invoicing of Rs 54 billion was caught.

The revenue authority further briefed the senate subcommittee that the solar panels were imported from China, but approx. Rs18 billion was illegally transferred to ten other countries.

It was revealed that the said companies used accounts opened in several private banks to carry out transactions to import solar panels.

In today’s meeting, a Faysal Bank Limited representative told the Senate body that the bank manager and other involved people were dismissed two hours after the inquiry.

The bank official said Bright Star and Moonlight made six transactions with the bank worth Rs185 million and Rs49 million, respectively.