KATHMANDU, July 12: The parliamentary probe committee formed earlier to investigate the involvement of unauthorized persons by former Finance Minister Janardan Sharma to manipulate tax rates in the annual budget for fiscal year 2022/23 has directed the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to provide CCTV footage and other related documents. 

The committee’s first meeting held on Tuesday asked the ministry concerned to provide necessary documents and footage of the night before the budget announcement date of May 29. The parliamentary committee’s secretary Surendra Aryal said they will write to the MoF in this regard. 

Finance Minister Sharma faces accusations of manipulating tax rates in the budget for the next fiscal year to benefit a handful of business houses and meet his vested interests. 

Sharma even refused to provide the CCTV footage of the ministry’s activities on the night before the date of budget announcement, stating that the system at the ministry is capable of maintaining storage of data only for 13 days of the recording.  

Amid mounting pressure from various quarters to step down amid moral ground, Sharma resigned from his post earlier last week. The main opposition party, CPN-UML– had demanded Sharma’s resignation from the post and formation of a parliamentary probe committee to look into the alleged irregularities and the policy level corruption.

 
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