KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed the Chief Collector Enforcement and Appraisement South to furnish para-wise comments on the complaints made by All Pakistan Truck, Trailer Owners Goods and Brokers Welfare Association.
In a letter forwarded to the Chief Collectors, Secretary (Enforcement and Coordination) FBR Shafqat Ali Khan Niazi says: “I am directed to enclose a copy of the Prime Minister’s Public Affairs Grievances Wing, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, that all necessary steps may be taken and point-wise views/comments may be furnished to the board for onward submission to the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Verification of customs documents of vehicles: “When Excise and Taxation Departments in all Pakistan sends documents to your Customs Department for verification at the time of registration of vehicle, the staff in your departments do not send confirmation letter when someone approaches their office for confirmation letter. The staff there ask for bribe and say that if you pay then we will send the confirmation of documents otherwise you can go anywhere you like but we will not send confirmation documents. The reason they ask for bribe is that they have to pay millions of rupees bribe to their upper level staff because of that we are sitting in these seats for more than five years.”
WeBOC and PRAL system: “The WeBOC system and PRAL which you have given to Excise and Taxation departments in Pakistan for online verification of documents mostly do not work properly in machinery and commercial vehicles and we also have the evidence of vehicle which open machine no in old PRAL system but excise department said that we can not feed registration number and when they open in WeBOC system excise department said no data in system is shown on screen because of this problem, corruption is increasing in both department and this WeBOC system need to improve and a meeting is required with the WeBOC Collectorate and DG of all excise and taxation department so this genuine problem can get resolved.
Custom check posts: The custom checkposts in roads mostly stop our transporters vehicles asked for auction vouchers, bill of entry and other documents and sometimes your staff asked that why your change or repair cabin of your vehicle. Sir we want to bring to your kind knowledge that in motor vehicle ordinance 1965in section 33 alteration of motor vehicle allow us to change everything except chassis number and our country is seaport and because of rust sands in air the cabin becomes rusty from time to time but the staff asked for bribe in the name of these issues and sometimes your staff say that the load container you load from ports have paid less duties in our department because of it we are detaining your vehicle. Sir we want to bring in your kind knowledge that the report releases loaded container when they received full duties then your staff in roads asked that your client have not paid full duties and how the container get released without payment of government duties and sometimes they said that vehicle registered in Balochistan are registered in fake documents mostly in Multan and Sukkur region. If you staff have evidence then write letter to NAB Balochistan, FIA Balochistan, Anti Corruption Balochistan and other government authorities to take action against these vehicles and corrupt officers of excise and taxation department in Balochistan which are registration these fake documents vehicles and decreasing revenue of our country.
Bonded carriers: When our transporters vehicles go for loading bonded carrier in KPT, KICT, PICT and QICT they face problems inside and outside and get detained for a week and then ask for damages per day and if a containers gets damage during loading and unloading the staff asks for huge amount of penalty. We wish to ask why these containers are not insured, why bonded carriers ask for damages from us even though these bonded carriers are not owners of vehicles but they act as if they are owners, they registered our vehicles when some of our clients import containers of whole project material through them and they also ask for registration fees in the form of bribe at the time of canceling or NOC for one another bonded carrier and if our transporters vehicles get snatched or any other thing the government agencies do not launch action bonded carriers, they launched against our transporters if bonded carriers are owners then actions should be launched against them and these problems creating a high level corruption in bonded carriers.
Insurance of containers when releasing from port and empty yards: When our transporters vehicles are come for loading or unloading in ports or in empty yards if our vehicle get into an accident after releasing in roads then shipping companies asked for huge damages because of it our transporter suffers a huge losses. We want to bring in your kind knowledge that some years ago custom ordered all the shipping companies not to give release order without full insurance but sometime custom and shipping companies are not following these orders and before 2005 when KICT, PICT or QICT was not available and clearing agents use to send someone from his office for loading or unloading, the customs officers used to check full insurance documents but now KICT, PICT or QICT do not check insurance document properly because no one can ask them. Due to this our transporters are faces all sorts of problems.”