Audit of Rs480 bn payment to IPPs being conducted, PAC told

ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan on Wednesday told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that an audit of payments of Rs480 billion made to independent power producers (IPPs) under the head of circular debt and Nandipur power project was being conducted and reports in this regard would be presented before the committee.
The PAC meeting, chaired by its head Syed Khursheed Shah, scrutinised the audit paras related to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the year 2010-11.
Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa told the PAC the membership of Global Transparency Club was must for bringing back $200 billion of Pakistanis stashed in foreign banks.
“We are hopeful of getting the membership to get information about the accounts and bring back Pakistan’s wealth,” he told the committee. The FBR chairman said the law to eliminate the ghost accounts (Benami accounts) would be presented in parliament by January.
He said the FBR was collecting the data of all those who were purchasing new cars, property and admitting their children to schools where the annual fees was above Rs200,000 and also getting the data of money transfers outside Pakistan.
“We are sending notices to all these people and it is hoped that 65,000 persons will be added to the tax net,” he said.
To a question of the committee on imposition of withholding tax (WHT), the chairman FBR said according to a report of the State Bank of Pakistan, the banks’ business was not affected after the imposition of WHT.
The FBR officials told the committee that they had the services of 700 legal advisers but the ratio of success in the FBR cases was only 10 percent. They said earlier the strength of legal advisers was 1,900 but it had been brought down to 700.
Khursheed Shah directed the FBR to bring down the strength of legal advisers to 200.
The Auditor General of Pakistan, Rana Asad Amin, told the committee that his department will conduct a special audit of the legal wing of the FBR and the report would be presented before the committee.