Islamabad, July 18, 2025 – Rashid Mehmood Langrial, Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), has issued a strong warning that the repeated release of tax fraudsters poses a serious threat to the credibility and effectiveness of Pakistan’s tax enforcement regime. While addressing a session of the sub-committee of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the FBR chairman expressed grave concerns that letting tax evaders off the hook not only weakens institutional authority but also severely undermines future deterrence efforts. He emphasized that FBR has been legally empowered to identify, investigate, and recover revenue lost due to tax fraud. However, recurring judicial leniency toward offenders dilutes the impact of these enforcement powers. Langrial revealed that Pakistan is grappling with tax fraud of alarming proportions, with the total volume now exceeding Rs700 billion. He highlighted that sales tax fraud remains a major area of concern, noting that Pakistan’s rate of fraud in this area is significantly higher compared to international benchmarks. Despite recent improvements in monitoring systems, the FBR chief admitted that the complete eradication of sales tax fraud remains a distant goal. He pointed out that while some progress has been made in reducing the scale…