The Sugar Inquiry Commission is reportedly exploring all avenues to get actionable evidence to prove sugar millers guilty of wrongdoing.
Industry sources told Business Recorder that submission of Sugar Inquiry Report is likely to be delayed for a couple of weeks.
Prime Minister Special Assistant on Asset Recovery Unit who also heads FIA, Barrister Shahzad Akbar will brief the Federal Cabinet next Tuesday on progress made so far.
An FIA official Sajjad Bajwa, has been suspended on suspicion of leaking information to one of the groups in South Punjab. The group also has representation in the federal cabinet. Probe teams are aware that their activities and phones are being closely monitored by the intelligence agencies.
The sources maintained that probe teams consisting of representatives from different departments are still grilling the sugar dealers to get evidence which can be made part of the findings.
In some cases, alleged highhandedness on part of teams has been observed which have been brought into the notice of Commission's Chairman Wajid Zia.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former Commerce Minister, Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan have offered to present evidence before the Commission's Chairman.
The sources said probe teams are trying to get the trail of sugar sold out of books to the dealers as sales tax of Rs 10.20 per kg is imposed on each kg of sugar.
These sources claim that the probe teams have collected some evidence on five or six mills out of under probe ten mills, according to which the mills procured sugarcane on the black market, produced sugar and sold in the market without paying sales tax.
"Probe teams are grilling the sugar dealers to get information about the mechanism of transactions as they have already got trails of trucks which transported the sugar produced through purchase of sugarcane on the black market," said an insider.
The teams are probing hundreds of bank accounts of dealers and wholesalers to get actionable evidence.
The probe teams are claiming they have traced "suspicious" accounts which were used in sugar-related transactions but in fact the evidence provided to the teams is " tailored" to make the probing team look like fools, so claimed an insider.
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in an order dated October 4, 2019 clearly states that payment made by or on behalf of the unregistered purchaser of the amount of the tax invoice of sales tax and applicable further tax, be deposited into the supplier's declared bank account. This implies that mills should accept CNIC in good faith.
The main focus of inquiry teams these days is to get evidence of how the payment was made from wholesalers to dealers and then to sugar mills. "Probe teams have obtained raw evidence of the issues but they have yet to substantiate it and present it at a forum for action," said one insider.
On the issue of export, Barrister Shahzad Akbar informed the Cabinet that the previous government had given a subsidy to the tune of Rs. 20 billion in 4 years.
During the tenure of the present government, no subsidy had been given by the federal government but Punjab government did allocate an amount of Rs. 3 billion as subsidy out of which Rs. 2.4 billion was utilized.
He further explained that in 2017 the previous government announced a subsidy of Rs. 20 billion at the rate of Rs. 20 per kg out of which Rs. 14.7 billion was drawn in which federal government gave subsidy at the rate of Rs 10.70 per kg. The Sindh chapter, however, provided the balance and it gave Rs. 20 per kg as initially contemplated.
He stated that no such subsidies were given by this government at federal level. He further stated that out of the total exported sugar 68.7 per cent was reportedly exported to Afghanistan and rest to other destinations. The export to Afghanistan is somewhat complex as no Letter of Credit is opened unlike other destinations.
Therefore, the forensic report by reconciling data of SBP and FBR juxtaposed to the sugar quantity released for the purpose by mills can reveal the exact situation.
When contracted, one of the key officer bearers told Business Recorder that nothing will happen as a result of this inquiry but Pakistan's repute will be damaged badly. He said, there was no shortage of sugar in the country.
He further stated that Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar in his recent interview on a private television channel acknowledged that permission for export of sugar was given by the ECC.
Comments
Comments are closed.