ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday directed Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to conduct a performance audit of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) in one month.

Rana Tanvir Hussain chaired the meeting to look into the losses of the USC while examining the audit paras of the USC 2019-2020.

Members committee expressed serious concerns over the complaints regarding sale of substandard food items at the Utility Stores.

Member Committee Noor Alam revealed that there were complaints of sub-standard ghee being sold at various outlets of the USC.

The secretary Industries and Production was directed to address the complaints and submit its findings to the committee.

The committee also stressed that there was a need to improve its services.

In another case, the officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) briefed the committee regarding inquiry of refund of Rs6 billion allowed to Usman Trade Linkers, Multan.

The audit findings and on-site visit and post-refund audit reports conducted by the RTO, Multan reveals that Usman Trade Linker was not a manufacturer-cum-exporter as defined under proviso of Section 2 (17) of Sales Tax Act, 1990, for refund but had to be under the category of commercial exporter as per Rule 2 (xi) of Sales Tax Rules, 2006.

Payment of refund through the ERS was therefore unjustified.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020