According to media reports, Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has unearthed multi-billion scam pertaining to vehicle registration.
Reportedly, many vehicles were registered through a fake auction in the name of a government department in Punjab.
In a letter to ACE, the department confirmed that it had never auctioned these vehicles and the vouchers used for auction were fake.
A group of excise and taxation bureaucrats are responsible for registering these vehicles through fake action vouchers and caused losses of billions of rupees to the provincial economy.
The report added that the ACE acquired the data of the bank transactions from the beneficiaries of the auctions that show money transfers worth millions of rupees.
Earlier, in December 2020, a corruption scandal of the same nature was unearthed by ACE. Used, smuggled and stolen vehicles were auctioned on the basis of fake army action vouchers for several years by a gang, comprising officials of Punjab excise and taxation department and private person.
The anti-graft watchdog started the investigation in 2017. They revealed that as many as 7,013 vehicles were dubious, with 4,000 of them being registered on the basis of fake vouchers. Moreover, they were unable to verify other vehicles in records. This has caused a total loss of Rs 300 billion to the exchequer directly or indirectly.
