KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court on Sunday remanded Chudamani Sharma in the custody of the Commission for the investigation of Abuse of Authority for seven days.

The anit-graft body, which produced Sharma at the Court today itself following his arrest on Friday, has accused him of embezzlement of revenue. This is the first time a high ranking government employee has been arrested on charge of the embezzlement of revenue.

However, talking to the media at the Court premises, Sharma argued that the CIAA has arrested him illegally.

It has been learnt that the CIAA has mainly arrested Sharma  for his alleged role in the exemption of huge taxes by the Tax Settlement Commission, which was formed in 2015 to settle pending tax disputes and of which Sharma was a member.

Out of  Rs 30.5 billion to be paid by big firms,  the TSC, however,  recovered taxes worth only RS 9.5 billion.

The House panel, Public Accounts Committee, had raised question over the TSC's decision to exempt taxes of big firms and charged TSC members with exempting big business from paying taxes for mutual benefit.

Sharma was also criticised for not fixing and collecting applicable capital gain tax involved in the Ncell deal betweeen Axiata and TeliaSonera.

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