PAC tacks ‘criminal´ tag on finance ministry

Lawmakers at a parliamentary Public Accounts Committee meeting today labelled the Ministry of Finance as a ‘bigger criminal’ for protecting VAT “Directing the ministry to initiate action against VAT defaulters and submit a report in 15 days, the parliamentary committee called the ministry protector of criminals,” said PAC Secretary Som Bahadur Thapa.
Earlier, the House panel had asked the ministry to provide names of the firms and entrepreneurs involved in using fake VAT bills to evade tax. But the ministry had provided the number of firms involved in evading tax, saying the Tax Law bars it from exposing the names of the firms that are under investigation.
But lawmakers today lashed out at the ministry, saying it was using legal procedures as a facade ‘to save the criminals’. “How can the ministry save criminals and bypass the parliamentary committee?” wondered the lawmakers.
The lawmakers today used the term ‘criminal’ which Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari has been repeatedly using for VAT evaders. Minister Adhikary recently had told the media that using fake VAT bills was a crime equivalent to printing fake currency notes. However, action against the VAT defaulters has failed to gain momentum.
PAC on April 1 had summoned Minister Adhikary and Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota to furnish details of the fake VAT bill scam. But Adhikari had cold-shouldered the PAC call and, instead, had organised a press meet to defend his position on allegations that he had pressured Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal to resign. According to Secretary Khanal, who is on home leave till April 13, Adhikary had piled pressure on him to ‘be soft on tax evaders’.
Adhikari, who was harping on a supplementary budget, on April 3 appeared before PAC and told lawmakers that he was preparing to bring an early budget.
“There’s enough room to doubt the government intention,” said former finance minister and Nepali Congress leader Ram Sharan Mahat. “Adhikary now has gone on the defensive and is trying all face-saving measures as Khanal’s resignation exposed the ill-intention of pardoning the VAT evaders through a supplementary budget, that too without keeping the Ministry of
Finance in loop,” said officials at the Ministry of Finance, adding, the government will lose over Rs 2 billion if the VAT evaders were let off scot-free.
The revenue mobilisation does not look encouraging in the wake of the possibility that the government won’t be able to meet the target of Rs 216.64 billion, projected by the earlier government.
The then finance minister Surendra Pandey had forced Rs 337.9 billion budget through ordinance on November 20, four months behind schedule.