The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has initiated an investigation regarding the role of some senior officials of the petroleum and natural resources ministry in connection to the embezzlement of Rs 86b rupees by some national and international oil and gas companies, it has been reported. There are as many as 40 companies alleged of being involved in the scandal.
According to the petroleum ministry’s audit reports 2013-15, a complaint (filed in the FIA Lahore) stated that these companies had collected billions of rupees from the consumers during 2012 and 2015 in the name of petroleum levy and gas surcharge.
Furthermore the audit report stated, “nine companies sold oil worth billions of rupees in connivance with officers/officials of the petroleum ministry after misappropriating the same from 34 oil wells in the name of ‘test production’ over the past six years.”
As per the law, test production cannot exceed a time period of two years after which either the oil well has to be closed or the sale has to be declared on commercial terms.
FIA has been successful in recovering Rs2.13b from various gas companies.The ministry is reported to have recovered Rs 48b whereas Rs86b is still unrecoverable from oil and gas exploration companies that were granted oil and gas exploration licenses in 2002. Moreover, the Sui Northern and Sui Southern (gas companies) have also been reported to be involved in misappropriating huge sums of money in the name of gas surcharge.
An FIA official is reported to have said that as per the orders of the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, FIA will be launching a thorough investigation against some national and international oil and gas companies in the country involved in embezzlement of billions. He further informed that the FIA had recovered Rs2.13b from some of the companies while the agency is still investigating the role of some senior officers of the petroleum ministry in relation to the companies involved in the scandal.
The officials and company representatives will be called in for investigations, stated the official. He further informed that the companies has extracted oil but not paid tax on it. On the same lines, the oil had been extracted using government machinery in the name of testing purposes and had been sold illegally and no funds deposited in the national exchequer against the transaction. In other cases, the oil exploration had been illegally carried out for up to 10 years against the license that had been granted for 3 years and there was no action from the concerned department, he added.
