OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE Public Accounts Committee-I Punjab has directed Provincial Secretary Excise and Taxation, Fawad Ahmed Fawad to immediately restore nine check posts of the department in the province. Chairman Chaudhry Zaheer-ud-Din made these directions during a meeting of the committee held on Saturday and discussed the audit paras of Excise & Taxation Department. E&T Secretary for not acting upon the directions, presented an excuse that the department had shortage of staff that was major obstruction in restoration of check posts, upon which the PAC-I Chairman directed him to provide details of vacant posts in the department and fill these sots on war footing. The PAC-I has been apprised that Chambers of Commerce, development authorities functioning under Local Government and federal departments were not paying property tax since 2005 and were defaulter of Rs 56.567 million. E&T Secretary cited example of Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) that has obtained a stay order in this regard, upon which, chairman PAC-I, expressed surprise over the apathy of the department that did not persuade the case in Lahore High court against the stay order and caused lose of millions of rupees to provincial kitty. The PAC-I has directed the department to raise the issue of tax on opium with Anti Narcotics and Customs departments regarding collection of tax on the item that has remained a major sources of departmental revenue. The PAC-I members attended the meeting include Rana Abdul Rehman, Mohsinn Leghari and Zaman Wattoo.