Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Rana Asad Amin, Federal Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood and 17 senior officers have been declared as tax evaders, according to an audit disclosure.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been directed to investigate them about the tax evasion, besides recovering illegal payments of Rs 25 million made to these top officers.

This observation was made in the audit report for the year 2014 and this report is now part of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) record. It is interesting to note that the audit report has also pinpointed that the sitting AGP, Rana Asad Amin, was involved in making a less payment of income tax and receiving Rs 970,433 illegally from the national kitty.

According to the audit report, a sum of Rs 25 million were paid to 17 top officers of the Finance Ministry illegally from the national kitty. These officers were not entitled to receive this amount as per rules but they took advantage of their clout being officers of the Finance Ministry and pocketed these heavy funds without seeking any approval from the higher authorities.

According to official documents received by Daily Times, the Finance Secretary, Dr Waqar Masood, received Rs 568000 illegally, Abdul Wahid Rana Rs 975638, Rana Asad Amin the sitting AGP got Rs 970433, Abdul Khaliq an officer of the ministry of finance got Rs 707553, Mehmood Akhtar Rs 493000, Aftab Anwar Baloch Rs 175600, Abdul Rauf Khan Rs 77000. Manzoor Ali Khan Rs 690000, Syed Ejaz Ali Shah Wasti, Rs 582000, Muhammad Anwar Khan Rs 504000, Iftikhar Ali Khan Rs 515000, Muhammad Sarwar Rs 455000, the Secretary Food Security Seerat, Asghar Rs 202000, Nuzrat Bashir Rs 165000, Faryab Ayub Tareen Rs 165000, the Secretary Petroleum, Arshid Mirza Rs 177000 and the former secretary industries Raja Hassan Nawaz transferred Rs 165000 illegally into his accounts.

The audit report also said that these 17 officers had illegally received Rs 6.4 million in the name of honorarium on the pretext of the preparation of the budget.

The report also states that these 17 officers are to pay an income tax amounting to Rs 3.8 million which was not paid by them. Following their failure in paying the tax, the audit declared these officers as tax evaders and forwarded the report to the parliamentary committee with the recommendation that action be initiated against the sitting AGP Rana Asad Amin , the Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood, the Secretary Petroleum Arshid Mirza, the Secretary Food, Seerat Asghar and the former Secretary Establishment and Industries, Raja Hassan Nawaz and other high ranking officers of the finance ministry. This audit report was worked out by the former AGP Buland Akhtar Rana and this report was released ahead of taking the charge of his office by the incumbent AGP Rana Asad Amin.

It is pertinent to mention here that Buland Akhtar Rana was dethroned on the charges that he received a few million rupees illegally by enhancing his own salary and this charge was levied by senior bureaucrats who are now facing the same charges.

It has now become a tradition in the ministry of finance that after presenting the annual budget in the parliament the bureaucracy is receiving huge public funds in the name of honorarium for preparing the budget but now this honorarium has been declared as being against the rules and procedures of the government and the law.