A whopping Rs314 million in various taxes that were supposed to go into the government’s coffers have been pocketed by corrupt members of the Sindh Board of Revenue (BoR), and the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jam Tamachi Unar, is not amused.
At a meeting on Tuesday, officials of the revenue department informed the PAC that a staggering 90% of the revenue collected from 2005 to 2009 had been misappropriated. About 27 para (audit concerns) were to be discussed at the meeting, but this did not happen as the officials of the revenue board had come unprepared, much to the chagrin of the PAC members. It will now be discussed at the next meeting of the PAC.
The director general for the audit, Ghulam Akhar Sohu, said that out of a total of Rs316.22 million only Rs2.34 million had been recovered. “In land tax, a total of Rs50 million were to be collected from 17 districts, but only three EDOs of Khairpur, Nawabshah and Umerkot have recovered a meager amount of Rs.0.2 million,” he said. Out of Rs11.3 million to be collected from Khairpur, only Rs0.152 million has come in. Meanwhile From Nawabshah (Benazirabad), Rs0.030 million have been collected against a total of Rs1.568 million. Similarly, out of total amount of Rs1.1 million, the EDO of Umkerkot has recovered a paltry sum of Rs0.020 million. The director general said that total recovery of Abiana was supposed to be Rs36 million, but these officials have recovered only Rs.0506 million.
A senior member of the revenue board, Shazar Shamon, accepted the failure of his department had committed and was critical of the performance of the revenue collection officials. “These officials will be removed from their posts and I will ask the deputy commissioners of the concerned districts to put them behind bars till the amount is recovered,” he said.
But Sohu cut him short. “You may be sincere, but we want to know how many reminders were sent to these corrupt officials to recover the embezzled amount,” he said. Not a single warning letter has been issued to officials, Sohu added. Shamon tried to defend his department by saying that political interference had disrupted its efficacy.
Jam Tamachi Unar directed the secretary of the PAC to write a letter to the chief minister of Sindh and the revenue minister to inform them about massive misappropriation of funds. “It seems as if the revenue department is still amongst the most corrupt departments in the province,” he said.
The deputy commissioners were asked to compile a list of those tapedars (revenue officials who collect land tax and maintain revenue record at union council level) who were involved in the embezzlement. He also gave the revenue department two months to recover the misappropriated funds. The deputy commissioners were of the view that the then EDO (Revenue), who according to them had powers of commissioners, should be asked about misappropriation of funds. “I have terminated two tapedars soon after joining my duty. I assure you that we will not follow the old practice and will recover the outstanding tax from defaulter land owners and revenue officials,” deputy commissioner of Benazirabad said.
On the occasion majority of the deputy commissioners said that they face difficulties in performing their jobs as they have no magisterial powers and asked that they been given such authority.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2011.
Correction: An earlier version of this report gave the incorrect name for the institution. It should have read the Sindh Board of Revenue (BoR) and not the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB), which was formed as a consequence of the Sindh Sales Tax on Services Act, 2011 effective July 1, 2011.
The mandate of the SRB is to act as a central body for the assessment, levy and collection of sales tax on services in Sindh. The error is regretted. Editor
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British Collectors and early Pakistani DCs were known for their integrity
Land Revenue Collectors have always been corrupt. That's why it was of such benefit to the East India Company when they appointed their own Collectors. In Pakistan they were to became known as Deputy Commissioners. Muslim history repeats itself.