KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has restrained the Pakistan Customs from taking any action against a developer allegedly involved in evasion of Rs 21.581 million through mis-declaration and claiming exemption from payment of customs duty and general sales tax on import of solar led street lights.
A division bench of the SHC gave this restraining order on the petition filed by Mirza Jamil Baig, who moved the court seeking directives for the customs authorities to exempt duty and tax on his consignment of solar led street lights.
The court directed Pakistan Customs’ counsel to ensure filing of comments by the respondent authorities before next hearing.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that his client was awarded a contract for installation of solar lights in municipals and towns of Sukkur by Sindh’s Rural Development Department.
Subsequently, he had imported a consignment of 1,060 solar led street lights and got the consignment cleared, getting exemption from duty and general sales tax as imported items fall within category of renewable source of energy and therefore, the government had exempted duty and tax on their import.
He said that the petitioner imported another consignment containing 4,120 solar led street lights and filed general declarations along with a certificate of Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) regarding exemption from duty and tax.
However, he lamented that his consignment was not cleared. On the contrary, he said, the petitioner was issued show-cause notice in respect of his earlier consignment. The petitioner pleaded to the court to declare that the solar led street lights imported by him are exempted from custom duty and tax. The court was requested to quash the show-cause notice.
