July 20: The Parliamentary Special Probe Committee formed to investigate the allegation that the then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma invited unauthorized persons to the ministry to influence the tax rates while preparing the budget for Fiscal Year 2022/23 is having trouble gathering evidences.

The committee is unable to collect enough evidences so far because the Ministry of Finance was not serious about preserving the CCTV footage since the beginning.

The investigation committee took statements from the members of the core team of the finance ministry involved in the preparation of the budget, including the finance secretary and revenue secretary.

A member of the investigation committee told New Business Age that although the committee took statements from them, no evidence was found to confirm the allegations.

So far, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini, Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar, Head of Budget Division Chakra Bahadur Budha, Chief of Revenue Management Division Bhupal Baral, Chief of Administration Division Kedar Sharma, Director General of Customs Department Kamal Bhattarai, Director General of Inland Revenue Department Ritesh Shakya, Under Secretary of the Information Technology Section of the Ministry Theku Shrestha, Under Secretary of Revenue Management Division, Sharad Niraula and Gopal Khatri already given their statements.

MPs Pradeep Gyawali, Khaga Raj Adhikari and Laxman Lal Karna, who are in the investigation committee, took statements from the finance ministry officials. According to one of the members of the investigation committee, some of those who gave statements answered that they were unaware of the incident on May 28. Some even claimed that such an incident never happened. 

The committee has been unable to gather evidence since the finance officials who participated in the budget preparation did not give a clear statement.

The investigation committee asked the Ministry of Finance for the CCTV footage of the previous day of budget announcement but did not receive it. According to the ministry, the CCTV was installed 9 years ago and its record-keeping capacity is only of 13 days. That is why the committee is having a hard time getting the CCTV footage.

Sources say that after the Ministry of Finance did not provide the CCTV footage, the committee started discussions with the technicians and experts of the Cyber ​​Bureau of the Nepal Police, including a former secretary.

Even though the then finance minister Sharma resigned after heavy criticism, the core team involved in budget preparation including the finance secretary is still in office. The investigation committee members suspect that they played a role in deleting the CCTV footage of that day.

One of the members said, “Neither the government nor the committee worked to secure the evidence from the beginning.” According to him, as soon as such the incident came to light, the government should have suspended the core team involved in budget preparation and preceded with the investigation process. The members of the investigation committee suspect that the team may have ordered the destruction of evidence while the officials remained in office.

Surveillance is ample

CCTV cameras are installed not only in the ministry of finance but from the entrance gate of Singha Durbar to the ministry. Even the poles around the ministry have CCTV cameras that monitor those who come in and out of the ministry. Any person who reaches the Ministry of Finance is under surveillance of more than a dozen CCTV cameras.

The committee is still not paying attention to look for evidences from the CC cameras of other agencies that lead towards the ministry. Due to the delay in receiving the CCTV footage, doubts have been raised that the parliamentary investigation committee will prepare its report on time.