ISLAMABAD – The Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue andEconomic Affairs Wednesday provided a last chance to the Federal Board ofRevenue (FBR) by granting it an extension of three months to completeinquiries and submit a report on action taken against corrupt officers.

The committee, which met here under the chairmanship of Senator FarooqHameed Naek, expressed its displeasure over FBR for not completinginquiries within last six months against the corrupt officers as directedby it.

The committee chairman directed the FBR representatives that the reportshould be submitted by the FBR Chairman and if there were any hindrances intaking action against the corrupt officers, the same should be clearlymentioned in the report.

The committee further asked the Board to prepare the report keeping in viewthe cases recommended by the sub-committee regarding corrupt practices.

Earlier, FBR representatives informed the committee that the inquiry andreport on the subject matter was delayed as various inquiry officers hadgone on training whereas there were some issues pending with appellatetribunals.

Meanwhile, the committee after thoroughly discussing the tax exemptionissues being faced by Sino-Hydro Corporation Limited, directed the FBR toexpedite matter and take decision within one month as per law.

The FBR representatives informed the committee that the corporation hadapplied for the certificate in January 2017 which was refused by thecompetent authority i.e. Commissioner and later it filed a review petitionbefore the Chief Commissioner, decision of which was still awaited.

The FBR was also directed to report to the committee why the decisionregarding the issuance of exemptions was delayed for such a long time.

The committee deferred consideration of depreciation of Pakistani rupeeagainst the dollar as the Minister of Finance and State Bank of PakistanGovernor were not available due to a meeting of Economic CoordinationCommittee (ECC).

The committee also discussed in detail the issue of modalities forimplementation of Tax Relief Regimes announced by the government aspromised during the passage of FATA, PATA and Malakand region merger bill25.

The committee directed the FBR to check whether the benefits passed toFederally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Provincially AdministeredTribal Areas (PATA) before and after merger were the same and present adetailed report in next meeting.

The committee members were of the view that the benefits provided to thoseareas before merger should stay there and if removed, the same should berestored.

They also expressed surprises on the issue of enhancing customs duty oncotton seven days after the passage of federal budget for the fiscal year2018-19 on the directive of cabinet.

The FBR representative informed the committee that since it was thedecision of the cabinet and as an implementation agency it had to implementit.

However, the committee referred the matter to the Law Division asking whatwas the status of cabinet decision regarding the matter.

The committee observed that change in custom tariff after the passage ofbudget was not conducive to the stability.

The committee resolved that in future any change in tariff structure on therecommendations of the cabinet should be put before the parliament. – APP