KARACHI: A committee constituted by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to investigate suspicious clearance of vehicles under amnesty scheme during 2011-12 has finalized its report and sent it to the FBR Headquarters, it is learnt here.
Sources informed Customs Today that the committee head Additional Collector-ADC Irfan Javed, after taking final statements of the Customs officials who were deployed in Car Group (Group-VII) at that particular time, has finalized his findings and sent the report to the FBR.
The sources further revealed that Additional Collector Irfan Javed has held negligence of the customs officials responsible for clearance of vehicles under the amnesty scheme.
To a query, the sources further said that the entire details of the case would be unveiled at a later stage as the report sent to the FBR headquarters was highly confidential and the details will be disclosed in the near future.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Office of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has directed the Customs authorities to initiate inquiry into the clearance of around 480 vehicles under amnesty scheme violated the SRO144(I)/2011, as the vehicles were cleared after available age-limit of three and half years.
It may be mentioned here that the MCC-Appraisement-West was also issued show-cause notices (SCNs) to around 37clearing agents while the authorities concerned of MCC-Preventive were issued SCNs to around 12 shipping companies into the said case and asked them to clear their position in this regard.
Subsequently, the FBR authorities concerned during the month of January 2015 constituted a team and appointed Additional Collector Irfan Javed to investigate the entire case and fixed the responsibilities on those who were actually involved into the said scam.
The inquiry body took five months to probe the case and finalize its findings and eventually, the Committee has sent its final report to the FBR authorities concerned in this regard.
