ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved recommendations of forensic commission to take action against those named in the report and decided to forward the entire matter of Rs 29 billion sugar subsidy to the National Accountability Bureau, said Special Assistant to prime minister on accountability Shahzad Akbar.
Addressing a news conference along with minister for information and broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz of after a meeting at the Bani Gala were a set of actions was approved by the prime minister on Sunday, Akbar said that recommendations approved could be divided into three parts with the first one to take penal action against those who were responsible and beneficiary of the sugar crisis and make recovery from them while second set of recommendations was about regulatory framework and third one was as to what should be done to bring the prices back to before sugar crisis level.
He added that the report which covers five year period reveals that main players of sugar industry have been un-regularized, cartelized and infested with political elite from all the political parties and has been directly or indirectly influencing the decision making and ultimately minting money from the people.
The prime minister, on the recommendations submitted to him, has decided to investigate subsidy scam and instructed that entire matter of Rs 29 billion subsidy provided to sugar mills should be forwarded to the National Accountability Bureau. He said that if any company that committed violations after getting subsidy would fall within NAB's purview and subsidy given by the federal or provincial governments will also be investigated.
Akbar further stated that 2014-14 Rs 6.5 billion subsidy, again Rs 6.5 billion in 2015-16 and Rs 20 billion subsidy of 2016-17 as well as the subsidy awarded by the present government and Sindh government would be investigated by the NAB.
The prime minister also decided that investigation should be started from 25 year back because political families came into business in 90s and a big group imported sugar from India, he said. He added that more than 80 mills would be investigated in the matter of subsidy.
Investigation of income and sale tax fraud as well as Benami fraud and less payment of sale tax would be done by the federal board of revenue (FBR) within 90 days.
As less payment of income tax evidences have been found, FBR has been instructed to conduct audit of all the sugar mills. He added that the tax fraud evidences were found in Hamza, Al-Arabia, JDW and Almuaz sugar mills. The FBR would submit report to the federal government within 90 days with regard to recovery it made.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has also been asked to investigate into cartelization within 90 days even though CCP has been a failure during the last many years, said special assistant on accountability.
The prime minister also approved inquiry and investigation of export proceeds, loans default write-off and sale of pledged stock and this would be done by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The SBP has been given 90 days time to submit report to the finance ministry whereas investigation of corporate fraud as incidences of fraud have been detected from shares of share holders to stocks to underwriting and over invoicing.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) would complete the investigation within 90 days for the purpose of their own proceedings.
Investigation into potentially fake exports to Afghanistan and money laundering would also be conducted by the FIA as there is substantial inconsistency between the sugar exported and received. The FIA would investigate and file cases,
Anti Corruption Department of three provinces, Punjab KP and Sindh would investigate breach in provincial laws and federal government would monitor the progress
Another steps we are also recent that IT technology IR code and laws on forward sales and online stock with the FBR are also being recommended fist time a third forum has approved cost of production and prime minister has approved a committee being headed by the minister for industries and production to work on sugar policy and to rationalize the sugar price according to cost of production should be ensured so that immediate relief is provided to the people.
The prime minister has reiterated that he would take on one by one all the mafias and people of Pakistan have given mandate the prime minister rand his is answerable to the people, added Shahzad Akbar.
Minister for information and broadcasting Shibli Faraz said that when the prices of sugar increased, prime minister promised to the people that he would investigate the matter and make the outcome public and taken action against those involved in it. He said that the
Faraz added that the PTI came to power with the slogan of accountability and would hold all those involved in corruption accountable before the law.
He said that some people were thinking that nothing would done on sugar crisis but prime minister not only constituted commission, made public report public but also conducted forensic audit and would decided to take action against those named by the commission.
Comments
Comments are closed.