Rs5,000b stuck up in courts awaiting adjudication, PAC told

Islamabad

A stunning revelation was made before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday that an amount of over Rs5,000 billion was stuck up in cases pending in the courts of law which is more than GDP of Pakistan.

Out of this colossal amount a sum of over Rs300 billion is contested by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) alone.

The PAC held its meeting on Wednesday presided over by Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah in which the audit paras related to FBR for the year 2013-14 were examined.

The PAC expressed deep concern over the huge amount of Rs5,000 billion stuck up in courts of law. He however expressed his helplessness over the absence of the Attorney General (AG) for Pakistan in the meeting. He said that the AG is invited to the meetings of the PAC but he has failed to attend even one in 90 days. The PAC Chairman directed the Additional Secretary PAC to write a letter to AG for Pakistan in this regard. 

The members offered a suggestion to hold a special meeting of the PAC on the pending cases in the courts of law.

Syed Khursheed Shah accepted the proposal and summoned the special meeting of the PAC on May 11 on the issue of reviewing the pending cases in the courts of law.

In the session of the PAC summoned for May 11, it was decided to invite Chairman senate Mian raza Rabbani, Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Law Minister Zahid Hamid, Opposition leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan and the Attorney General.

During the meeting, it was revealed that according to a study carried out by a private cigarette manufacturer, Pakistanis smoke cigarettes worth Rs 88 billion annually.

While during the year 2011-12, cigarettes worth of Rs53.49 billion were sold out in Pakistan.

Audit officials told the Committee that cigarette industry alone evaded excise duty of around Rs14.75 billion.

FBR officials said the FBR has made raids in large numbers to confiscate smuggled cigarettes and illegal sale of cigarettes. “There was a ban on sale of ‘gutka’ and the FBR raided to stop its sale but six personnel of the Customs lost their lives so the FBR stopped raids,” he added.   

The FBR officials told the committee that an illegal factory of Pind Dadan Khan near Jehlum was known for manufacturing contraband cigarettes . They told that they confiscated 4 to 5 containers and ironically it was asked in the Senate committee as to why the raids were being made.

The officials told the committee that there were illegal factories in Azad Jummu and Kashmir and Fata which were out of scope.

The FBR Chairman told the committee that around 5,000 containers daily reach Karachi port and scanning of each container was not possible but now with the assistance of the World Bank a mechanism and system for scanning of each and every containers from port to warehouse would be possible. He told that FBR was taking strict against those officials who were involved in corrupt practices and irregularities and imposed major penalties on 49 officials. “These include 42 employees from grade 1 to 16 and 8 officials of grade 18,” he added.

Senator Chaudhry Tanveer in a lighter vein made a remark that ban be imposed on Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed from smoking cigar for the sake of his health.

Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed asked why everyone was so curios about his cigars as fake medicines and fake injections which were sold in the open markets were more dangerous.