Audit flags millions lost due to 'FBR lapses'

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Tuesday of significant financial irregularities and violations of customs laws within the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Auditors reported losses of millions of rupees to the national exchequer due to the FBR's failure to impose mandatory surcharges and recover additional customs duties.

The PAC subcommittee met at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of convener Shahida Akhtar, where Audit Report 14-2013 was examined in detail, focusing on financial mismanagement and breaches of the Customs Act, 1969, during the period from 2010 to 2014.

The committee was informed that surcharges were not imposed on delayed payments in violation of the Customs Act, resulting in a loss of Rs15.15 million to the national exchequer.

Audit officials said customs offices in Karachi and Islamabad failed to recover dues despite payment delays ranging from 11 to 385 days.

According to the audit briefing, departmental action was still pending on recoveries amounting to Rs133.8 million, while only Rs0.96 million had so far been confirmed as recovered.

Audit officials noted that failure to ensure timely recovery of government dues had caused direct financial losses to the treasury.

Briefing the committee, the FBR chairman stated that delays had occurred in payments by a government entity, which should have attracted surcharges. However, he said approval for imposing late-payment surcharges was delayed.

Following this explanation, the committee directed verification of the audit paragraph and disposed of the matter.

The committee also examined another audit paragraph highlighting a loss of Rs25.5 million due to failure to collect additional customs duty.

Audit officials told the committee that five different customs collectorates cleared imports without collecting the applicable additional duty during the period from July to December 2013.