KARACHI: The officials of the Pakistan Customs have come up with some significant proposals to foil tax evasion attempts and have drawn the attention of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chief Tariq Bajwa and Member (Customs) Nisar Muhammad Ali toward the issue.
Sharing their views with Customs Today, the senior officials of the Pakistan Customs said that the scrutiny of the user IDs should be conducted by the authorities concerned on monthly basis, as the fake user IDs are being used in clearance of the consignments, adding that the clearance on self-assessment is also being continued without any proper check by the authorities.
“Increasing cases of fraudulent clearance are depriving the national exchequer of billions of rupees duty,” they said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Collector MCC Appraisement-East Najeeb-ur-Rehman Abbasi has already told authorities not to entertain those goods declarations which seek clearance on “self-assessment” basis.
Collector Abbasi has made it clear that no Good Declaration (GD) would be cleared without authority letter and authorised clearing agent. However; the violation of the directives is continuing in the collectorate, as consignments are still being cleared on self-assessment basis.
In the context of the above mentioned details, the R&D Section of MCC Appraisement-East has recently detected a mafia involved in clearance of auto parts through under-invoicing, and has caused colossal loss to the national exchequer.
When the R&D Section of MCC Appraisement-East taken-up the matter, it has found during scrutinizing of the clearance data that most of the consignments have been cleared on self-assessment and there was a well-established mafia which is being involved behind the clearance of the automotive spare parts through under-invoicing.
They were of the view that the said influential mafia has strong roots and approach in Customs Department and due to that they are being continued to clear their consignments and damaging the national exchequer.
Citing the example of the recent case disposed-of by Sindh High Court (SHC), in which it asked the authorities of Pakistan Customs to release the stuck-up goods without taking differential amount in term of duty was an integral part of the said planned illegal clearance of the consignments of automotive parts.
The officials said that the Pakistan Customs due to the lethargic approach of the authorities concerned has lost the said case.
The officials concerned of Pakistan Customs demanded of the FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa to form a committee in order to conduct proper inquiry/probe on the grounds through which the Pakistan Customs lost the case.
