The government on Thursday announced a halt to the procurement of 1,010 cars for tax officers after Senator Faisal Vawda, a vocal voice against car buying, alleged in a Senate panel meeting that taxmen threatened to take his life and also raided offices of an automaker.
Vawda made the allegations in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that took up the issue of procurement of 1,010 cars from Honda Atlas for grade 17 and 18 officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
"The process of buying cars is frozen until other proposed options are reevaluated," said FBR Chairman Rashid Langrial during the meeting soon after Vawda's remarks.
The development came hot on the heels of Prime Minister's Office intervention that sought replies from the FBR about allegations of wrongdoing in the procurement of cars.
"Four FBR officers threatened me after I raised my voice against the buying of cars," alleged Vawda, adding that the FBR officers also raided the offices of Indus Motor, a market competitor of Honda Atlas Cars.
"We hold this committee in very high esteem and criminal proceedings should begin against officers who have given life threats," said the FBR chairman. He added that any raid on Indus Motor offices was not in his knowledge and he would investigate and submit a report to the committee.
He stressed that the matter should be investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The committee recommended sending several matters, including vehicle procurement, to the FIA.
The Senate committee took up for discussion the federal government's plan to procure 1,087 vehicles of up to 1,300cc for grade 17 and 18 officers of the FBR at a cost of about Rs5.6 billion. The FBR has placed first order for 1,010 vehicles of 1,200cc capacity with Honda Atlas.
Vawda was of the view that there was no competition in the process and the carmaker was directly selected for the contract.
He also inquired about the whereabouts of 100 vehicles acquired by the FBR in the past in the name of enforcement. He said that he had footage of those vehicles being parked at homes of officers.
Sources told The Express Tribune that some Customs officers had also distributed confiscated luxury vehicles without fulfilling formalities. These vehicles are currently unaccounted for.
Vawda proposed that instead of buying cars for officers from the budget, the FBR should give them vehicles on a cost-sharing basis.
There should be an investigation to determine how Honda Atlas was selected for giving car order, said Senator Shibli Faraz.
"After the FBR's reaction against me, I have found out top 54 corrupt officers and I have details of their assets being kept in others' names," said Vawda.
The FBR chairman said that a massive exercise was carried out in April last year to weed out corrupt officers based on the input from all intelligence agencies.
He said that heads of the FBR's technical and procurement committees were A-rated clean officers from intelligence agencies. These two officers can commit mistakes but they are not corrupt, said Langrial.
The committee decided that it would also hear the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) board to determine whether the FBR followed a transparent process in the purchase of cars.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb emphasised the need for introducing technology in the FBR to address corruption. There were segments of society that were ready to pay three times more tax but were not willing to deal with the FBR, "which we have to change", he said.
The finance minister also spoke about the new budget process. He said that this year the government would not give surprises to its coalition partners and the business community and all proposals would be finalised by April.
He said that it would be the last budget when tax policy would be discussed in the FBR and from next fiscal year, the policy function would be separated.
During the meeting, the committee was briefed on the revenue shortfall of Rs384 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year. The FBR collected Rs5.624 trillion, falling short of the target of Rs6.009 trillion.
Tax-to-GDP ratio rose to 10.8% in the second quarter, up from 9.5% in the first quarter, though it remained below the target of 13.6% by the end of IMF programme. In comparison, India's tax-to-GDP ratio stands at 18%.
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