Irregularities worth millions of rupees unearthed in E&T Punjab

LAHORE
Irregularities worth millions of rupees have been unearthed in Excise and Taxation (E&T) Punjab while the department has issued show-cause notices to nine of its inspectors who were allegedly involved, well placed sources told The Nation on Thursday.
They said that recovery inspectors recovered less tax and showed millions of rupees more than actually recovered in official documents. After this revelation, Punjab Finance Department put the matter into the notice of Secretary Excise who through Director General Excise asked all the directors to start inquiry into the issue. Sources claimed that through preliminary inquiry in Zone-V Gulberg in only one circle during two months there was difference of Rs4 to 5 million in tax figures. Inspector concerned Tariq Moeen deposited the difference of recovered amount on his own and inquiry officer recommended to his seniors to hold the regular inquiry in that effect. Inquiry officer was of the view that by holding regular inquiry more irregularities were expected to be unearthed.
Sources claimed that due to poor performance, inspectors cannot achieve tax target set by the Punjab government and ultimately they use jugglery of words and show more amounts recovered than the actual ones. A senior officer of E&T seeking anonymity said that there were more irregularities in all A, B, C Regions of E&T. He revealed that irregularities worth not less than Rs. 90 millions were detected in Region C which deals with motor transport taxes including Sheiokhupora, Nankana and Kasur districts. Region A deals with Property Tax, Excise and Professional Tax including Zone, one, two, three, four, 10, 12, 13. Region B included property tax, Farm houses tax and entertainment tax and Zone, five, six, seven  eight, nine and 14.
Another officer of E&T said that Region B has recovered 1744 million which is 88 percent of the fixed target. Difference of amounts recovered and showed was in millions. An officer on condition of not to be named said that this difference in Region B was more than Rs. 25 million and Region A it was Rs. 35 million and in Region C it was more than Rs.90 million. In Faisalabad E&T department recovered Rs700m property tax against Rs1b target, sealed 2,600 properties in 8 months. Excise Directors Rana Intikhab, Syed Ali Bukhtiar and Nauman Aslam of the region directed the circular inspectors to expedite the process of recovery from defaulters to achieve the target. The department issued more than 3,000 recovery notices to tax defaulters in eight months.
It has so far achieved 70 per cent of the assigned target, while officials hope that the rest of the 30 percent target would be attained by the end of fiscal year.