ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan has unearthed a variation of Rs70 billion in figures of tax receipts reported by the Federal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan during 2014-15.

The AGP has asked the FBR to fix the responsibility for misreporting and those found responsible be proceeded against under the relevant disciplinary rules.

The report will soon be placed before the Public Accounts Committee which is led by Khursheed Shah.

At the outset, the variation in figures of receipts reported by field offices of FBR stood at Rs55.424bn.

In the financial year 2014-15, the report observed the figures reported by the five field offices of FBR on account of receipt and refunds were different from what had actually been reconciled with Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR).

According to the audit report, this further revealed that the internal reconciliation between the treasuries and the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) was not carried out prior to financial reporting to the AGPR and FBR.

It was a violation of accounting procedures, the report notes, adding that no reply was furnished by those responsible.

In the second case of misreporting, there is a variation in figures of tax receipts of direct and indirect taxes as figures of FBR and SBP did not tally and a gap of Rs14.347bn was detected.

According to the report, the scrutiny of SBP’s record — maintained by the main office in Karachi and Director Research and Statistics (DRS), FBR as per reconciliation statement at macro level till the month of June 2015 — revealed that there was a variation Rs14.347bn between FBR reconciled figures and SBP figures.

The collection figure reported by SBP for the year 2014-15 was Rs2.243 trillion, while FBR data showed collection figure of Rs2.257tr for the same year, reflecting a variation of Rs14.347bn.

The report observes that this variation impaired true and fair presentation of financial statements as the figures of revenue receipts from external sources were on higher side.

According to the reply on the audit para, the DRS said it was not possible to match the FBR’s figures with those of SBP, Karachi.

The report recommended that the DRS should carry out reconciliation at national level with SBP so that real picture of revenue collection could be presented to the stakeholders.

Published in Dawn October 12th, 2016