ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Dr Muhammad Irshad has said that litigation of cases has come as the biggest hurdle in the way of revenue collection from the corporate sector.
While briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here, Dr Muhammad Irshad said that the cases involving an amount of Rs 750 million were pending with the courts against 52 companies. Moreover, an amount of Rs 6.28 billion was also receivable; out of which Rs 5.42 billion was receivable from independent power producers alone. Cases in this regard are lying pending with the high court level, he said.
PAC scrutinized the audit objections about the financial management of the FBR for the fiscal year 2013-14 and the members remained critical towards the FBR performance on the issue of vigorous pursuance of recovery cases. Audit raised issue of fiscal mismanagement of Rs 121 billion on account of the FBR.
Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Assad Amin in this regard tried to build a case against the FBR, saying that Rs 2.41 billion were collected from different companies during the aforesaid period by the FBR.
Moreover, the FBR could collect Rs 260 million from potential taxpayers who were served with notices. Out of the said potential taxpayers, cases involving Rs 250 million were still pending with the courts.
Despite strong bids on part of AGP to build a case against the FBR, Dr Muhammad Irshad aptly responded to almost all the objections raised by the Audit. However, PAC members, under the influence of Audit officials, sought briefing from the FBR’s technical team on the criminal status a person who may have plundered national money.
The PAC also asked the FBR team to come up to the next meeting after making full-fledged preparations to respond to the audit objections.
