ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Dr Shoaib Suddle said on Tuesday that a network of fraudsters were involved in the pilferage of Afghan transit containers in domestic market during the last four years that is believed to have caused billions of revenue loss to the kitty.

“We are investigating the issue to fix individual responsibilities in the missing containers scam. It is not possible to make a complete report in a period of three months,” the ombudsman said while addressing a press conference to highlight his achievements after taking over the office.

Elaborating further, the FTO said that it was found during the investigation that the fraudsters only transported the seals of containers and copies of goods declaration instead of any movement of containers from Karachi to customs ports at Torkham and Chaman for registration.

He said that in the year 2010, the FTO office received 1,446 individual complaints of which 955 pertained to income tax, 276 to sales tax, 205 to customs and 10 complaints involved the Federal Excise Duty. Of these, 1,261 complaints were decided by Dec 31, 2010.