The Speaker National Assembly on Thursday directed the finance and revenue body to investigate Rs 20 billion GST refund scam of Raja Zaraat under the Duty and Tax Remission for Export (DTRE) scheme and ascertain the involvement of senior tax officials.
Speaker Amir Hussain, with the consent of State Minister for Finance Omar Ayub Khan, referred the refund payment fraud by Bawan Shah Group of Companies to the standing committee on finance and revenue. The government conceded it a serious violation of law and ordered for a thorough investigation to fix the responsibility and bring the culprits to the book.
Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians lawmakers including Syed Khursheed Shah, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Khalid Iqbal Memon and Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada accused some high-ups of the Central Board of Revenue of involvement in the scam.
They called for referring the issue to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly for a detailed inquiry rather suspending a few CBR officials.
The main culprit behind the refund scam, Raja Zaraat, who is in the custody of Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation, Customs and Excise, was unable to get bail from Special Judge, Customs and Excise, Karachi and the CBR was also not legally empowered to accommodate his case under the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism. Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Omar Ayub Khan agreed to the opposition's proposal, saying it was a very serious fraud.
He, however, said that an investigation was already underway. "We are conducting a thorough investigation of illegal consignments both in and outside the country, following illegal consignments from Pakistan to port of Bandar Abbas, Iran".
He said some officials have been suspended and assured that people responsible would be taken to task.
Finance Minister Omar Ayub accepted the opposition's request to refer the matter to the Public Accounts Committee saying he was ready to take the matter to any parliamentary body. Taking strong exception of the Rs 20 billion tax refund fraud case, Speaker Amir Hussain directed the standing committee of finance and revenue to launch a thorough probe into it.
Later on, the government presented seven more ordinances before the house amid strong protest by the opposition members who said, "Presidency was being made an ordinance depot". Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi moved the motion to lay down ordinances one the Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan (Reorganisation and Conversion) Ordinance, 2006.
Other six ordinances include The Police Order (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2006, The Khushhali Bank (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006, The Federal Public Service Commission (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2006, The National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2006, The Patents (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006 and The Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan Ordinance, 2006.
Protesting over the move, MMA MNA Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said there should be legislation instead of promulgating ordinances with every passing day. PPPP legislator and a veteran lawyer Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada referring to the Supreme Court verdict said the government could not re-promulgate an ordinance. However, Sher Afgan did not agree with them and said it is Prime Minister who advises the President to promulgate the ordinance and there was no harm in it.
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