KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday reserved its verdict on an application seeking provisional release of a consignment of solar LED street lights.
A division bench of SHC reserved the verdict to be pronounced during the course of the day. However, it was not announced till filing of this report.
The petitioner Mirza Jamil Baig moved the application for provisional release of his consignment which was detained on account of mis-declaration.
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. Instead he said, the petitioner was issued show-cause notice for evading Rs 21.581 million through mis-declaration and claiming exemption from payment of customs duty and general sales tax on his first consignment. He said that he was also issued another show-cause notice in respect of his second consignment.
The petitioner requested the judges to order temporary release of his consignment as he is ready to deposit post-dated cheques for the release of the consignment.
Advocate Kashif Nazir, who represented the customs authorities, asked the court to direct the petitioner to deposit disputed amount of duty and taxes with Nazir of the court for release of the consignment.
He told the court that the petitioner mis-declared the PCT Heading and got cleared his consignment under PCT Heading 4905.1090 which does not cover lights imported by the petitioner. The lights imported by the petitioner are classifiable under PCT Heading 9405.4090 and are not exempted from sales tax. The petitioner was only given exemption from customs duty on his consignment.
