Settlement of Rs 480 billion circular debt continues to haunt the present government after a sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee of Finance has recommended that there are blatant violations in the payment and matter should be referred to FIA and NAB for an investigation.
A three-member sub-committee was constituted a few months ago by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla of Pakistan Peoples' Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) by taking one member each from Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Saud Majeed, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Mohsin Aziz, and Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid), Kamil Ali Agha, to look into the audit report on payment of Rs 480 billion circular debt by the present government after coming into power in 2013 and suggest recommendations.
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance presided over by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla adopted the sub-committee's report for onward presenting it in the next session of the Upper House of the Parliament for taking action on its recommendations after a discussion. Senator Mohsin Aziz, the convenor of sub-committee, later told media that the sub committee recommended recovery of Rs 60 billion for idle capacity, running some power plants at single cycle against Nepra's approved tariff for double cycles, sales tax as well as on other heads.
Earlier, submitting a report to the committee, he stated that the committee has documented a unanimous report that payment of circular debt was made within one day after bypassing Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) and endorsed all the irregularities pointed out by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) in its audit reports.
Chairman of the sub-committee Mohsin Aziz said the report was unanimous and the sub-committee appreciated the role of the AGP for an in-depth analysis of each payment and bringing the wrongdoings on record.
Aziz said the committee did not agree to the government's contention that the payment of circular debt was made within one day due to emergency after taking all the steps from preparation of the proposal to approval and then to transfer of the amount into the accounts.
He further stated that all the members of the committee also believed the payment could have been negotiated as it was an ongoing payment and could be delayed. Senator Kamil Ali Agha, a member of the sub-committee, said, "This case should be made an example for others." The chairman of the committee stated that the report "accused the people of wrongdoing and this would be the second report of the finance committee which would be forwarded to the FIA and NAB for probe, fixing responsibility of individuals or ministries and recovery of Rs 60 billion on various accounts. Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme Marvi Memon also briefed the committee on the ongoing desk approach in the four districts and maintained that 46 per cent work has been completed.
She also stated that BISP has made improvement in both education and nutrition sectors. She said of the total suspicious cases, 125,174 cases were updated wrongly, which had been blocked two years ago. She said that action has been taken against the 67 officials and some of them have been terminated from service, while some others have been suspended for their involvement. She said that some cases have also been forwarded to the FIA for investigation.
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