Abdullah Malik
ISLAMABAD: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Rana Tanvir Hussain Wednesday directed Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to brief the committee on tax collection and interest rates.
While briefing the PAC on annual finance accounts of government of Pakistan, the audit officials informed that they prepared the financial statements now contrary to the previous practice.
The officials informed that during the financial year 2017-18 supplementary grants of Rs. 10 trillion were released.
The grants released after June 5 were without the Parliament’s approval, said the audit official.
Chairman of the committee observed that the budget demanded by the ministries was not spent completely and above the budget, a supplementary grant was demanded.
Secretary finance informed the committee that no supplementary grant was released in last eight months.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq remarked that high interest rates by the State Bank of Pakistan has slowed the business activities.
Chairman Rana Tanvir Hussain said that inflation has increased in the country and it was the need of the hour to find solutions.
Secretary finance said that in the month of January the inflation was 14.4 % whereas the government was aware of these facts and was taking every possible step to control it.
The committee also discussed the issue of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) which refused the audit on the plea that they were exempted from the audit.
Member Noor Alam Khan said that every public institute has to be audited no matter what.
He said OGRA and Islamabad Club also refused an audit saying they were independent entities but ultimately, they were audited.
The audit officials informed the few institutes from the corporate sector refused audit on the same pleas but the Constitution of Pakistan authorizes the Auditor General of Pakistan to audit every public entity.
Representative of law ministry informed the committee that PEC came into existence through an act of parliament therefore the audit was not mandatory.
The audit officials objected that those institutes linked with PEC and being audited by charted accountants would refuse audit if the plea of PEC was accepted.
The DG audit said National Bank of Pakistan was refusing audit for the last four years since they obtained stay order from the court.
The PAC chairman directed PEC to provide the reports of audit done by the charted accountants upon which they agreed to share Audit reports.
