ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has discussed massive irregularities worth Rs 187 billion in accounts of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The PAC meeting was held to review FBR audit report for the year 2013-14 under the chairmanship of Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang, who expressed dissatisfaction over not holding of regular departmental audit in FBR.
The committee directed both the audit officials and FBR officials to review the statistics and present them again for scrutiny. It reviewed the audit objections for the financial year 2013-14. Audit officials informed the PAC that irregularities of worth Rs 187 billion were unearthed in the FBR accounts during the audit.
The audit authorities apprised the committee that meetings of Departmental Audit Committee (DAC) were held on regular basis in the board. They said Rs 16 billion were recovered after identification by the audit officials, adding that currently 29 cases of irregularities in the Inland Revenue were in courts.
FBR Member Dr Irshad admitted that the field offices of FBR in Karachi and Lahore could not recover Rs 42 billion sales tax, adding that so far Rs 5.19 billion had been recovered.
The Member told the committee that they are facing difficulties in meeting the target of the tax collection and they have dismissed 8 tax commissioners from their jobs over poor performance.
From January 2016 to June 2016, the audit authorities said 200,000 applications of sales tax refunds were given to FBR in Karachi, out of which only 2,000 were verified. The post refund reports of the verified applications have also not shown, they added.
Rashid Godil said claims of sale tax refunds were on the rise on basis of fake invoices in Karachi, seeking details of blacklisted tax payers.
The audit officials said 514 withholding agents of FBR in Karachi and Lahore had not paid tax, which is amounting to Rs 24.15 billion. The PAC directed to make recoveries as early as possible.
Among others, the meeting was attended by Shafqat Mehmood, Dr Darshan, Mohammad Pervaiz Malik, Rana Afzal Hussain, Mian Abdul Manan, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Raja Javed Ikhlas, Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Sheikh Rohale.
