Tractor company gets Rs1.4 billion, but not one unit is delivered

Firm deceitfully claims subsidy amount in connivance with officials of the Sindh agriculture department

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s decline in the agriculture sector and deepening corruption woes were on naked display this week when Karachi’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) unearthed a mega scam involving officials of the Sindh agriculture department and a private company colluding to embezzle Rs1.4 billion.



The ACE has now registered a case against officials of the Sindh agriculture department and Shehzad Trade Links CEO Shehzad Riaz on allegations of claiming a false tractor subsidy amount and embezzling Rs1.4 billion in the name of farmers.

The ACE received a complaint on March 7, 2017, alleging the commission of massive corruption in tractor subsidy scheme, run by the agriculture department of the Sindh government.

Subsequently, information was obtained from various offices and a thorough inquiry was conducted into the matter. The ACE carried out multiple raids to arrest the accused persons and court permission has also been sought to obtain bank statements of the accused. Additionally, the ACE is also tracing the bill of entry to prove absence of imported tractors from Belarus.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, ACE’s investigation of the agriculture department led them to Riaz.

Riaz worked as an agent of Belarus Tractors and was tasked to deliver tractors to growers who emerged successful in the subsidy balloting under the 2009-2012 tractor schemes.

Riaz was supposed to deliver tractors to growers and claim the subsidy amount of Rs300,000 per tractor from the Sindh government.

As many as 5,780 tractors were apparently delivered by him. However, ground reality suggested an entirely different scenario in which Riaz failed to make a single delivery.

Despite this, he received the subsidy amount of Rs1.45 billion.

As part of the scheme, the dealer was supposed to collect pay orders from the growers and deliver the tractors while collecting the subsidy from the government. However, the record revealed that Riaz had received cash payments and generated invoices in the name of growers and claimed subsidy from the government. When contacted, the growers denied that they had ever applied for tractors in the subsidy scheme or even received any.



The inquiry also revealed that majority of the growers, who were purportedly delivered tractors by Riaz, had used the same bank branch Karachi for pay orders and in some cases in cash.

When contacted, officials of the Ministry of Industries said that the federal government had nothing to do with this matter since it was a subject the province was dealing with.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2017.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.