PAC grills law secretary over CAG’s 2 opinions

A parliamentary panel on Friday grilled the law secretary over the “two contradictory opinions” of the Attorney General on a CAG report and several members expressed unhappiness with his reply.

A parliamentary panel on Friday grilled the law secretary over the “two contradictory opinions” of the Attorney General on a CAG report and several members expressed unhappiness with his reply.

The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had summoned law secretary BA Agrawal to explain why the ministry changed its stand on whether government expenditure on interest payment on tax refunds was in contravention of constitutional provisions.

Dissatisfied with the secretary’s response, the committee has now decided to ask Vahanvati to explain his opinions, who could not appear on Friday.

In his first opinion, Vahanvati had supported CAG’s view that expenditure on interest payment on refund of taxes was in contravention of constitutional provisions. But in his revised opinion, he said the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was not at fault. Agarwal could not respond to direct queries put by PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi.