Sources told Business Recorder on Thursday that the FBR had expressed serious concerns over the mismanagement in spending of the budget for TA/DA. The spending of huge amount of Rs 8.3 million in just five months also seems not to be in line with the government's austerity measures/ plan.
This also reflects that frequent travel of the tax officials remains unchecked keeping in view the actual budget allocated for 2012-13. According to FBR, the utilisation of the funds under TA/DA head is about 86 percent leaving about 14 percent for the remaining seven months of the financial year.
It said that this high expenditure on TA/DA was due to an upward revision in rates of TA/DA, transfer grant, frequent visits of the officers/officials of FBR (HQ) and relatively higher number of transfers/postings from FBR (HQ) to field offices and vice versa. Furthermore, the Finance Division had imposed 20 percent cut on the allocation and re-appropriation of funds, which has also been banned under the head TA/DA. In view of the acute shortage of funds, the following measures have been approved by the Chairman, FBR/Secretary, Revenue Division, to control the expenditure under the head TA/DA:
All members/officers of FBR (HQ) shall exercise due diligence and control while undertaking visits involving TA/DA; the FBR Management Wing will keep cost cement in view while undertaking postings and transfers of officers to and from FBR (HQ) and the officers/officials (BS-1 to 21) will undertake mandatory visits only with the prior approval of the Chairman, FBR/Secretary, Revenue Division.