The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly earlier yesterday sought details of “confiscated, smuggled and tampered with” vehicles from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)
It also directed the FBR t to furnish details as to how many of those were auctioned, given to government departments and were in use of the officials of FBR.
In a PAC meeting, FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa also revealed that before assuming his charge, officials of the FBR were neither filing their tax returns nor declaring their asset details, but now after introduction of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) system in the FBR each and every officer was not only filing tax return but also declaring his or her asset details.
The meeting was presided over by Syed Khursheed Shah in which the audit paras relating to the FBR for the year 2010-11 were examined.
The FBR chairman told the committee that the tampered with vehicles were not auctioned but offered to other government departments while only smuggled vehicles were auctioned.
He told the committee that under the amnesty scheme of year 2012, around 50,000 non-custom paid vehicles were cleared and registered due to which billions of rupees were deposited in the national exchequer. Audit officials told the committee that the FBR delays in disposing of confiscated vehicles was responsible for turning them into scrap while parked at the warehouses.
However, the FBR officials were of the opinion that the delay in disposing of confiscated vehicles was just because many cases are pending with courts. If a decision in favour of FBR is given soon, these confiscated vehicles would be auctioned immediately.
During the meeting, a huge difference was found in the figures submitted by the FBR and those by the Auditor General of Pakistan. Chairman PAC asked the Auditor General of Pakistan for an inquiry into the huge differences in the figures which were presented before the committee.
He also directed officials of the FBR and the Audit department to take all the audit paras where the amount differences existed at the level of the Departmental Accounting Committee (DAC) to reconcile the figures.
Expressing annoyance over the statistical difference, the Chairman PAC, Syed Khursheed Shah, remarked that it was unfortunate that such kind of petty issues were being brought before the committee. “There should be an inquiry to find out whether it was the fault of the FBR or Audit Department and whosever was found guilty should be taken to task,” he observed.
