Facts provided to Inland Revenue unreliable

Sandasen Marasinghe

Retired tax instructor of Inland Revenue Department Piyadasa Guruge stated before the Colombo High Court that the facts in the application provided by the Intag Apparels (Pvt) Ltd to the Inland Revenue Department to refund the VAT in the exports could not be reliable.

He made this observation before High Court Judge Sunil Rajapakse when he was cross-examined by President's Counsel Thilak Marapana appearing for defence in connection with the biggest ever VAT fraud of nearly Rs. 4,000 million.

Piyadasa Guruge also said that the truthfulness of all the details in the application could not be verified through the computers in the GST section and for that a field investigation should be conducted. He said it, when he was cross-examined by the President's Counsel Thilak Marapana.

When cross-examined by President's Counsel Desmond Gunaratne Guruge said that certain payments could not be refunded to the businessmen within 30 days as instructed.

Attorney General filed indictment before the Colombo High Court against two income tax officers and 12 businessmen in respect of the Rs. 3,996 million massive VAT fraud between November 15, 2002 and July 15, 2004.

Retired Deputy Income tax Commissioner Gnanasiri de Soysa Jayatilake, Deputy Commissioner Ananda Wickramasinghe Ambepitiya, Rasheed Mohamed Murshid, Bakeer Mohamed Rias, Mohamed Subeire Fausul Amami, Maujul Ameer Irshad, Nagur Mohamed, Nasmi Mohamed Khamil Kuthubdeen, Abdul Mohamed Saheer, Sinnaiyah Subramanium, Salaudeen Ashroff Mohamed Khasim Safeek, Mohamed Ismail Risvin and Sahabdeen Abdullah were indicted in this regard.

The Case is heard in absentia of third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and twelfth as they were absconding the Court.

The case was put off for January 31.