ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has acquitted its former Chairman Shabbar Zaidi off the allegations of allegedly favoring ‘close friends’ by issuing refunds of 16 billion rupees. According to details, National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recently taken notice of media reports claiming that former FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi had allegedly misused his authority to favor his closed ones and the clients of his law-firm. He had allegedly issued refunds of 16 billion rupees, according to those media reports. The FBR, however has submitted its report on the issue before the Public Accounts Committee, reportedly giving ‘clean chit’ to its former chairman. The report, available with ONLINE, said that Shabbar Zaidi remained head of the FBR from May 2019 to April 2020. During the time period, FBR issued more than 71.50 billion rupees as refunds. Report claimed news of Zaidi allegedly cherishing his friends and clients as ‘false’ and revealed that refunds of only twelve billions have been issued to those six organizations. The report said that issuance of refunds was a routine act as the amount had been pending since long. Further the report clarified that former Chairman did not issue any kind of orders in this regard. Zaidi had resigned from his law-firm before taking charge as chairman FBR, the report said. ONLINE
