The Public Accounts Committee-I (PAC-I) of Punjab Assembly on Saturday ordered Punjab Excise and Taxation (E&T) Secretary Fawad Ahmed Fawad to restore 9 checkposts of E&T immediately to monitor the movement of drugs in the province.
The E&T secretary had ignored the directions by a Punjab E&T Department committee. He explained that the department had a shortage of staff, which was the major obstruction in the restoration of check posts. Consequently, the PAC-I chairman directed him to provide details of vacant posts in the department and fill the vacancies at the earliest.
During the meeting, the committee discussed audit paragraphs regarding the Punjab E&T Department and directed the Department to send a summary for the improvement of departmental rules and regulations to the provincial government.
The meeting was informed that the Chambers of Commerce, development authorities functioning under the local government and federal departments had not been paying any property taxes since 2005 and were defaulters of Rs 56.57 million. The E&T secretary cited the example of Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) that had obtained a stay order in this regard, upon which PAC-I Chairman Chaudhry Zaheer expressed surprise over the apathy of the department on not pursuing the case in the Lahore High Court, causing a loss of millions of rupees to the provincial government. He directed the department to pursue the case as the stay order in financial affairs could not be sustained for more than 6 months.
PAC-I has directed the E&T Department to raise the issue of tax on opium with Anti narcotics and Customs Departments and send a summary to the Punjab government in this regard.
PAC-I meeting would continue on November 14 and 15.
