The House of Representatives on Thursday extended the deadline for the parliamentary committee formed to probe charges faced by Janardan Sharma by seven days.
Speaker Agni Sapkota announced that the House has approved the proposal to extend the committee’s tenure by seven more days.
The committee, which was given 10 days to submit its report and recommendations, started its work on July 12.
Its 10-day deadline ends on Thursday.
“You know we are not in a position to present our report until the police come up with its report on CCTV footage as today is the 10th day,” said Joint Secretary Surendra Aryal, who is working as the secretary of the probe panel. “We had sought a deadline extension.”
Per media reports, Sharma invited two outsiders to tweak tax rates on the night of May 28. He presented the budget in Parliament on May 29.
The panel so far has grilled concerned officials of the Finance Ministry including Finance Secretary Madhu Marasini and Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar.
On Thursday, the panel questioned Sharma for three hours, during which the latter dismissed allegations that he invited outsiders to alter tax rates.
Committee members say they now have to wait for a report by Nepal Police that is investigating the hard drive so as to find out whether the CCTV footage was deleted.
“We have sent the hard drive to the forensic lab of Nepal Police and are waiting for its report,” said Man Bahadur Bishworkarma, a member of the panel.
After the panel failed to get the CCTV footage record of the night of May 28, the hard drive of the CCTV was sent to Nepal Police on Wednesday.
The Finance Ministry earlier had said the hard drive had the capacity to keep records of the CCTV only for 13 days only.
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