SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will recover outstanding amount of Federal Excise Duty (FED) from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) after its privatization.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Inland Revenue (Operations) Dr. Hamid Ateeq Sarwar was responding to an audit objection of Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP).

The issue came to the light during the last meeting of the Public Accounts Committee held on FBR Audit Paras pending for the last 10-15 years.

AGP officials were of the view that the recovery of the FED is necessary as it was collected from consumers. The general public has paid this amount of the FED which was not a government grant issued to the national flag carrier.

FBR Member Inland Revenue (Operations) said that if we do FED recovery from PIA at this stage, it would result in closure of the operations of the airline. Therefore, the FED should be recovered after privatization of the PIA. The status and the process of the privatization of the PIA could be updated by the Privatization Commission, FBR member added. There is an amount of nearly Rs 920 million outstanding against the said airline, according to the AGP officials.