The Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) has decided to freeze 26 bank accounts of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) for non-payment of federal excise duty, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.

According to the FBR, the national carrier owed Rs8.84 billion federal excise duty and had promised to pay Rs2 billion this month, which could not be fulfilled yet.

The FBR blamed that PIA's senior management had used the funds by opening separate accounts and failed to deposit the federal excise duty, collected from passengers in the national treasury.

The FBR said they had also moved a complaint in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under anti-money laundering act against the PIA management for utilizing the FED funds.

Meanwhile, a PIA spokesman has clarified that the freezing of bank accounts will not affects its flights operation.

Reporter Ashraf Khan