KATHMANDU, July 21: The deadline of the Parliamentary Investigation Special Committee formed to investigate former Finance Minister Janardhan Sharma’s involvement of ‘unauthorized persons’ in the budget preparation, is being extended as it could not submit its report within the stipulated time.

The inquiry committee had requested the CCTV footage of May 28 from the Ministry of Finance. However, the Ministry has sent footage of June stating that the footage of May has been deleted already. The deadline of the committee is going to be extended to the time given to recover the CCTV footage of the month of May.

After the committee did not find the CCTV footage of the month of May including the midnight of May 28, the hard disks of the CCTV have been sent to the forensic lab on Wednesday. As it takes about a week to recover the deleted CCTV footage in the forensic lab, it is seen that the CCTV footage will not be recovered unless the deadline of the committee is extended.

Secretary of the probe committee, Surendra Aryal, said that the original deadline expires on Friday. The committee is preparing to propose an extension of its term for a week.

An 11-member parliamentary special investigation committee was formed  on July 6 after the then Finance Minister Sharma was accused of manipulating tax rates by calling unauthorized persons at the finance ministry in the middle of the night while preparing the 2022/23 budget.

About a week after its formation, the committee has been working continuously since July 12. As of Wednesday, the committee has completed the first phase of its investigation. Finance Minister Janardhan Sharma has been summoned for interrogation on Thursday morning after taking a statement from the concerned persons.

 
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