LAHORE: Collector of Customs Appeals Dr Asif Mehmood Jah has said that the collectorate has been deciding appeals filed with the collectorate on merit and without any discrimination between government agencies and private parties. Besides the private parties have also been given choice to appear in person to contest their appeals by themselves if they cannot afford legal counsel.
He was talking to Customs Today here at his office at the Customs House Nabha Road the other day. The collector of Appeals stated that the collectorate occupies a special place in the whole structure of the customs organization due to high frequency of its work.
To a query, the collector said that the collectorate entertains appeals on cases decided by assistant and deputy collectors of collectorates which are greater in number comparatively, he informed.
He explained that appeal below the value of Rs 1 million is filed with the collectorate of Appeals and the disputes involving big amounts are filed with the appellate tribunal for apples while the collectorate always attempted to decide an appeal filed with it within the one month after the case is decided by assistant and deputy collectors and according to law the cases are bound to be decided within 120 days, however, the collectorate normally decides cases within 30 days.
Answering a question, he said that collectorate every year performance of the collectorate has been improving significantly despite the fact that it has been catering the need of almost whole of the province with just 7 staff members.
While giving month wise break-up the Collector Dr Asif Mehmood Jah said that the collectorate decided 93 cases involving revenue worth Rs 41 million during the six month from January to June 2016 in favor of Customs department while 24 appeals worth Rs 10 million were decided in favor of private parties during the period under review
He said that it decided 16 cases worth Rs 10 million in favor of the department while seven cases worth Rs 2.22 million were decided in favor of private parties during January 2016.
Similarly 13 appeals worth Rs 7 million were decided in favor of the department while 4 cases worth Rs 1.4 million were decided in favor of private parties during February 2016.
Likewise, the collector said that the collectorate decided 20 appeals worth Rs 9 million in favor of the department while 4 appeals worth Rs 2 million were decided in favor of private parties in March.
The collectorate decided 17 cases worth Rs 6 million in favor of the department while 3 cases worth Rs 1 million were decided in favor of private parties in April while six cases worth Rs 2 million were decided in favor of the department while 1 case worth Rs 0.35 million in favor of private parties during July, 2016.
He further stated that 21 cases worth Rs 6 million were decided in favor of the department while 5 cases worth Rs 3 million were decided in favor of private parties during June 2016.
The collector said that the above mentioned break-up is testimony and made the fact crystal clear that appeals are decided purely on the basis of available facts and figures and the decisions made by the colletorate are seldom reversed and are upheld.
The collector expressed his resolve to work with even more vigorously during the current financial year and extend relief to the private parties and decide apples in favour of the government agencies where they are true to the facts and figures.
