The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday raided Chattogram City Corporation's Revenue Department and seized documents related to an alleged scam worth about Tk 40 crore by two of its revenue officials, ACC and CCC officials said.

The anti-graft body also launched a formal investigation into the alleged fraud dating back to 2020-2021, through which two container depots were given undue tax waiver by forging documents.

Contacted, ACC Assistant Director Sayed Alam said, "During our raid, we found evidence of reducing the holding tax through tampering of documents. We have seized the documents from the city corporation's Revenue Department."

The ACC official added that while the CCC has taken action against some employees, more officials may be involved, and the container depots themselves are the beneficiaries of this "criminal offence."

According to sources in the ACC, the 2016-2017 holding tax of the two container depots -- Eshak Brothers Industries Limited and Incontrade Limited -- was assessed at Tk 26.38 crore and Tk 25.67 crore, respectively.

During the primary investigation, the ACC found evidence that employees in the CCC's Revenue Department fraudulently erased the first digit (2) from each figure, reducing the holding tax for the two depots to Tk 6.38 crore and Tk 5.67 crore.

Both companies denied any wrongdoing, and said the assessment figures themselves were questionable and that they had appealed to the CCC for reassessment several years ago. 

CCC sources said the alleged fraud occurred during the appeal review board hearings for the 2017-18 financial year's tax assessments. The digit "2" was erased from the presentation forms before the hearings. Incontrade Limited's hearing was on December 24, 2020, and Eshak Brothers Industries Limited's hearing was on June 13, 2021.

CCC's own investigation detected the tax irregularities, and they authorities suspended Tax Officer Nurul Alam and Deputy Tax Officer Joy Prakash Sen on Wednesday. Three accounts assistants -- Manzur Morshed, Rupshi Rani Dey, and Ahsan Ullah -- were also relieved of their duties, officials said.

Contacted, CCC CEO Sheikh Muhammad Towhidul Islam said they are cooperating fully with the ACC.

"The issue of irregularities regarding holding tax has already been discovered through an internal investigation. As soon as we received the probe report, we took punitive measures against those involved," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

He added that they handed over their report to the ACC for further investigation.

Md Saiful Islam, executive director of Incontrade Limited, said the issue dates back to the 2016–17 fiscal statement.

"At that time, we informed them [CCC] through our association that holding tax is determined based on the property, not on the financial statement," he said. "Later, they reassessed the property at Tk 5 crore and demanded holding tax accordingly, which we again appealed.

"Following the appeal, the amount was reduced to Tk 58 lakh, and we paid 14.4 percent tax as per the revised assessment. We did not make any manipulations ourselves."

He said the allegation that the revenue amount was reduced through undue means is "completely baseless".

Ruhul Amin Shikder, general manager of Eshak Brothers, said his company's valuation was fixed at Tk 12 lakh in 2016, but in 2017, the CCC increased it to Tk 26 crore.

"We then appealed to the CCC to reduce the valuation, and the CCC authorities fixed it at Tk 6 crore. But that too was too high and we appealed again," he told The Daily Star.

According to him, the CCC fixed the valuation at Tk 2 crore in 2021. "I can't understand where these talks are coming from after so many years."

CCC Mayor Shahadat Hossain told The Daily Star last night that there would be no question if the holding tax were re-evaluated and reduced genuinely. "But the probe committee found tampering of documents. As soon as I received the report on October 19, I have ordered action against the accused officials."