PAC dismayed at distortion of facts by revenue secretary
THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday regretted that the revenue secretary sent a distorted summary to the prime minister to forgive a collector involved in a scam of Rs 140 million.
A telecom sector company was allowed a refund of central excise duty for the period of January 2001-2005 although the incidence of that had already been passed on to the consumers. This caused a refund of duty/tax of Rs 140 million during May and July 2005. This lapse was pointed out to the department in June 2006 and the Board in August 2006. The PAC constituted a sub-committee to look into the matter and ensure recovery of the amount in question. PAC Chairman was of the view that the PM did not know that the summary contained false information.
This happened in Pakistan last week as reported by Pakistan's daily Times.