ISLAMABAD: A subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Narcotics Control has sought report of inquires against the Federal Board of Revenue’s 149 officers involved in corruption.
The subcommittee’s meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz here at the Parliament House and was attended among others by Senators Mohsin Leghari, Saud Majeed, FBR Chairman Tariq Mahmood Pasha, FBR Member Administration and other senior officers of the Board.
Regarding inquiry into 265 missing containers, the committee decided to refer the matter to the upcoming standing committee on Finance which will be formed after Senate elections to look into the matter further because the inquiry conducted so far is not satisfactory.
The committee asked FBR to collect concrete data whether the importers involved were identified, if yes what action was taken against them, who was the inquiry officer and what measures were taken between the time of reporting of the case and the suo moto case of Sindh High Court.
The committee was briefed that corruption in clearance of 264 containers caused more than Rs2.40 billion losses to the national exchequer.
The subcommittee directed the FBR to submit report of these longstanding inquiries within three months. The committee also discussed the means by which inquiry process can be made more effective and can be completed sooner than the present procedures.
The country’s top revenue authority was directed to constitute a high-level monitoring committee to review the corruption cases. The committee disposed off some of the inquiries, called for re-opening of a few closed inquiries and decided to wait for completion of process of one inquiry.
FBR Chairman Tariq Mahmood Pasha informed the committee that the Board had detected some corruption cases after departmental audit and taken action against the officials involved in corruption.
“The Service Tribunal has suspended the punishment of several officers, who were sentenced by the department; however, a number of corrupt officers have also been punished on the direction of the Tribunal,” Pasha added.
He said the FBR would act on the committee’s recommendations under the law and the corrupt officers would not be defended.
The FBR chairman told committee that the Board has already devised a plan to constitute a committee, comprising of high-level officers and it would be finalized with two weeks.
