LAHORE - Embezzlement worth millions of rupees has been unearthed in Excise and Taxation (E&T) office, Multan where hundreds of heavy vehicles were registered against fake registration numbers.
Well placed sources in the E&T said that this massive corruption was revealed in audit of only 20 percent record by the auditing team. The officer conducting audit was not only refused to provide remaining 80 percent record but was also transferred on behest of Director General E&T Punjab, Akram Ashraf Gondal from the audit section.
It is worth mentioning here that Gondal is holding charge of Aating Director General E&T Punjab office since long only for the reason that he has links with top bureaucrat of the province.
“Apart from monetary losses, it is also a security hazard to issue a fake number to a vehicle, especially when country is facing terrorism threat”, said a senior officer of Excise seeking anonymity.
He further said that size of embezzled amount could touch Rs1 billion since there were heavy taxes on heavy vehicles including buses, dumpers, oil tankers and trawlers. Duty on registration of dumper was Rs 1 million while registration of Mazda cost 0.5 to 0.6 million rupees, he added.
As per details, Director Audit and Enforcement, Muhammad Asif and his team including Nizam Din, inspector, and auditor Askif unearthed the said embezzlement during inspection of Multan excise office.
Director E&T Multan Jam Siraj and six members of his team were summoned by DG Excise Akram Ashraf to hush up the issue but on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shehbaz Sahrif a case against officials involved in tax fraud has been registered under FIR number 23/16.
Audit is still in progress as 80 percent audit was yet to be conducted and more revelations were expected but E&T Multan office has refused to cooperate with the audit team. DG office intervened and transferred the audit officer and directed him to report to DG office. Different quarters of E&T department also reported an exchange of hot words between acting DG Excise Gondal and Director Audit Asif.
Sources said that E&T Multan office has also issued numbers to non customs paid, tempered and stolen vehicles.
A member of audit team said that major chunk of evasion was attributed to federal government since taxes were supposed to be collected by federal government.
Sources said though present acting DG was making hectic efforts to get regular charge of his office but failed to run department successfully and most importantly corruption free. Sources said that there were several corruption inquiries lying pending with the excise office and more corruption cases were being surfaced. There were inquiries about token tax fraud in motor branch Lahore office and property tax fraud in different zones wherein excise officials had issued fake receipts against payments of token and property taxes.
When acting Director General E&T Punjab, Akram Ashraf Gondal was contacted to know his version on the story, he said that 15 officials including a director as well as subordinates have been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been initiated. He said that audit has been completed and director audit was not transferred by him rather it was done by Secretary Excise. He also hinted at conducting more audit, if needed.