The PAC meeting held here under the chairmanship of Syed Khursheed Shah to discuss and review audit paras of FBR for the year 2016-17 was informed by the officials of the AGP and FBR that over Rs 5 trillion (which is equal to the current federal budget) tax related matters have been pending in various courts since long. They said that as a result of long delays in courts, the country is facing serious financial crunch, adding if half of the long pending cases are decided, it would save country from foreign loans.
The PAC also took notice of the alleged irregularities in tax payments of National Logistics Cell (NLC) during a review of records submitted by the FBR.
The FBR officials told the panel that Rs 56 billion tax payments are stuck in 695 stay orders given by various courts. On this Chairman PAC remarked that it is expected that after receiving the PAC letter, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will take appropriate action and will direct the lower judiciary to dispose of the long pending court cases.
The FBR officials informed the committee members that the payments are pending because courts have issued stay orders against the tax defaulters. On this, the PAC chairman expressed concern and said that "courts should think before issuing stay order in such issues."