KARACHI: The Adjudication authority of Pakistan Customs after completing its hearing into tax evasion case linked with Q-Mobile, Telecommunication Company and its authorized dealers New Allied Electronics and Digicom Private Limited has started its working on preparing final Order-in-Original (ONO) in tax evasion case amounting to Rs 772 million.
The sources informed Customs Today that the authorities concerned of Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-I are likely to issue final Order-in Original into the case in the second week of the current month of February.
Collector of Customs Adjudication-I Dr Farid Iqbal Qureshi after the last hearing into the case on 11 December-2014 did not announced any further date of hearing and decided to issue final ONO into the case on the basis of merit. The sources further revealed that the Collector of Customs Adjudication-I was study the para-wise comments submitted by both the parties i.e. Pakistan Customs and representatives of telecommunication company into the case thoroughly and will issue the final ONO into the case in the current month.
It may be mentioned here that the tax evasion case against the Q-Mobile was surfaced in the month of August-2014 in which the MCC Multan in its contravention report stated that the cellular company i.e. Q-Mobile was involved in tax evasion of Rs 772 millions in import of around 2.4 million cellular phones of different characteristics. The total six hearings were conducted into the said case which were held on 22-Sept, 13-Oct, 27-Oct, 13-Nov, 6-December and 11-December respectively in the office of the Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-I.
The MCC Multan in its contravention report against Q-Mobile on 26-August stated that the importer Q-Mobile and its authorized dealers Digicom (Private) Limited and New Allied Electronics were involved in the tax evasion tune to Rs 772 million in terms of evading additional Sales Tax and Customs Duty by violating the SRO460 (I)/2013 in importing of around 2.4 million cellular phones of different models and description.
The Collector of Customs Collectorate of Adjudication-I in six hearings into the case has listened the view-points of both the respondent i.e. MCC Multan and petitioner i.e. Q-Mobile.
The departmental representative of Q-Mobile Afzal Ahmed Bhatti appeared before the Collector of Customs Collectorate of Adjudication-I in all hearings of the case, while the Additional Collector of MCC Multan Ghulam Mustafa and Superintendent ASO Multan Tanveer Malik were present to contest the case on behalf of Pakistan Customs.
In the hearings, the departmental representatives of MCC Multan were of the view that the cellular company i.e. Q-Mobile was paying sales tax at Rs 250 against the import of each smart phone while the other cellular companies including Samsung Blackberry and Nokia had been paying sales tax at Rs 500 on import of such smart phones which were identical to the mobile phones imported by Q mobile.
The departmental representatives of MCC Multan also stated that when the screen size of smart phone has been increased to 5 inches from 4.2 inches, the Q mobile stopped paying sales tax at Rs. 500.
On the other hand, the departmental representative of Q-Mobile in all hearings challenged the jurisdiction of MCC Multan by stating that the mobiles phones were cleared from MCC Preventive Karachi and Multan Customs could not seize those mobile phones.
The departmental representative of Q-Mobile also came up with the objection that the Customs’ authorities have nothing to do with the collection of sales tax, as this issue is to be handled by Inland Revenue Services (IRS) FBR.
The sources hinted that the Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-I will issue the ONO against the cellular company and will go with the view point of MCC Multan.
