CBR given two months to verify tax audit reports

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has given two months time to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to verify direct tax audit reports (2000-01) from the Auditor General (AG) office.
The PAC expressed serious concern over delay in verification process and directed the AG office and the CBR to settle these deferred issues in the Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) and then come to this forum.
It is a matter of concern that cases of 2000-01 are still not verified, which reflected lethargic attitude of concerned officials.
The committee was surprised to observe how the AG office has given verified amount in a case without actually verifying challans from income tax department. On the other hand, the CBR has claimed recovery of Rs 6.387 million in a case of under-assessment of income tax. When the PAC demanded tax record to verify this recovery, the CBR chairman said it would be verified with the AG office in next DAC meeting. However, it would be difficult to bring boxes of challans to the PAC meeting.
It seemed that some confusion has been created pertaining to these paras. He assured the PAC the issue would be verified in two months time. One PAC member said brining relevant tax record to the PAC would not require a large number of boxes. Auditor General Younus Khan said the AG office only conduct test audit of specific number of cases. The actual loss could be many times more in several other cases on similar issues.
However, it is expected from the CBR to co-ordinate with the audit staff to ensure that only verified audit paras are brought into the PAC.
In another issue, the CBR chairman requested the AG office to sit together for resolving disputed issues where position of law is not clear. The matter came to the light when a case relating to interest income earned by banks was discussed during meeting.He explained there are two different ways of charging tax on interest income by banks.The CBR has moved high court against the decision of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in this particular case, he added. The CBR chairman stated the government is gradually reducing tax rates for banking companies. It would be brought down to 35 percent in future.