FBR didn’t capitalise on super tax potential, audit finds

The report, finalised under the aegis of AGP Maqbool Ahmad Gondal, spans dozens of entities, from commercial corporations and the tax machinery to the power, telecommunications, railway and social protection sectors. The findings are observations representing the auditors’ position and include departments’ responses presented during Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) meetings. The report will now be taken up by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly. While examining the accounts of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), auditors identified Rs117.8bn in under-realised super tax alone, alongside more irregularities such as un-recovered duties. In the Petroleum Division, auditors pointed to recoveries of about Rs117bn and a disputed gas subsidy balance running into hundreds of billions of rupees. Electricity distribution companies, including Hesco, Lesco and Fesco, were reported to be operating with unaudited accounts for 2023–25 and without internal audits, against a backdrop of withheld subsidy claims and stalled transmission projects. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was criticised for failing to bring data centres under its licensing regime and for not penalising Ufone’s operator despite established cases of illegal SIM activation. The National Telecommunication Corporation was found to be serving private clients beyond its government-only mandate. Pakist