The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee was informed on Friday by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that Rs11 billion tax exemption was given to unregistered buyers – distributors, wholesalers, retailers, who purchased ghee from manufacturers.
A meeting of PAC was held under the chairmanship of Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain in which the audit objections of the FBR for the year 2019-20 were reviewed.
Earlier, the FBR had given an illegal rebate of Rs11 billion and now started searching for these unregistered companies for recovery.
The committee directed the FBR for recovery by determining the correct statistics.
Chairman Hussain reminded Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, former speaker of the National Assembly, about the excesses of the past. “I didn't get a chance to speak.”
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The committee chairman said that small amounts of audit should be settled at DAC level and “brought to us”.
“Settle less than 10 million audit paras at DAC level. There are a total of 28,000 paras. If the principal accounting officer settles the paras at the DAC level, the work will be reduced.”
The audit officials said the FBR has 131 paras this year, which were not recommended for settlement. The DAC decision should be implemented.”
The chairman said that report on the implementation of DAC decisions “should be given to us and also tell us what is not being implemented”.
Committee member Sadiq said that the audit paragraphs from 1985 to 2010 are with “our sub-committee”. “The FBR recovery stands at Rs1.8 trillion. For two and a half years, their tribunals had not been completed.”
“You have the most important PAC sub-committee but the work is not as expected,” Chairman Hussain told Sadiq. “When you were the speaker, I was not allowed to speak for five years,” he said, adding that Sadiq’s eyes were on Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Audit officials informed the committee about the non-payment of super tax by 123 taxpayers in 14 field formations of the FBR. The committee gave two months for recovery.
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Audit officials informed the committee about the issue of non-payment of sales tax of Rs11.58 billion.
The audit officials told the committee that 21 ghee manufacturers supplied Rs68 billion worth of products to unregistered buyers.
They said sales tax should be recovered from all these buyers and they should be registered. “The total amount is Rs11 billion. No action has been taken yet.”
The FBR officials have written to the committee and “we have written to the manufacturers”.
“These are unregistered people. It will take time to find out. Information about registered buyers has arrived. Of Rs11 billion, the recovery will be reduced to a few hundred million. We will try to find the unregistered buyers and recover the government’s money.”
The committee chairman said that it should be reconsidered. If the correct statistics are counted, the amount should be recovered.
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