Treasury Secretary was not aware of the massive VAT scam, court told
Wednesday, 24 July 2013 00:45
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Secretary of the Finance Ministry Dr. P.B. Jayasundera in a letter has told a court hearing the case of a massive Value Added Tax (VAT) scam that he was not aware of the fraud.
Responding to a Colombo High Court notice issued on July 11 for him to appear in Court today to testify in Rs. 4 billion VAT scam case, Dr. Jayasundera has sent a letter to the court through his representative saying that he has no idea of the information regarding the scam taken place in the country from November 2002 to April 2004.
The suspect, former Inland Revenue Commissioner A. Gnanasiri de Soyza, is in remand over the VAT scam.
Commissioner General of Inland Revenue Mallika Samarasundara appearing in court to give evidence has also said that she has no idea about the incident, private radio Hiru FM reported. However, she has provided the names of four heads of different divisions of the Department to obtain the necessary information, and the court has issued notices for them to appear before the court to give evidence in the case. According to the Hiru FM news report, Senior Commissioner P.B. Jayasekera, Deputy Commissioners W.S.A. Costa and Selston Soyza, and assessor N.P. Abeysekera are the four individuals. Commissioner of Internal Revenue A.A. Wijepala has been summoned to the court when the case will be taken again for hearing tomorrow. Additional Solicitor General Buwaneka Aluvihare has informed the court that the Secretary of the Finance Ministry could be summoned on other day. He has also informed the court that according to the Inland Revenue Act, a court order is essential to release documents of the Inland Revenue Department.
Gnanasiri de Soyza is the only suspect remanded for the crime. Another six suspects, who have been in remand custody for seven years and pleaded guilty to the charges in April, have been sentenced to serve rigorous jail terms. However, another 8 suspects are remaining at large overseas and the police had issued an open warrant seeking the assistance of INTERPOL to arrest them.
Between 2002 and 2004, the suspects were involved in a fraud where the VAT branch of the Inland Revenue Department has allegedly made unlawful refunds to non-existent companies amounting to a fraud of over 4 billion rupees.
