ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the judgment of single bench declaring Car Amnesty Scheme unlawful and ordering the seizure of vehicles registered under the scheme.
A division bench of IHC comprising Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan and Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi resumed hearing of an intra-court appeal filed by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) through its counsel Athar Minallah against the IHC judgment in case of amnesty scheme, which termed impugned scheme under SRO No 172(I)/2013 as illegal.
The division bench also suspended the order to confiscate 50,000 smuggled vehicles which were brought in country under the said scheme.
During the course of hearing, Athar Minallah counsel for FBR, apprised the bench that the Supreme Court in its verdict had observed that non-customs paid vehicles were mainly used in criminal activities.
Therefore, the government has introduced amnesty scheme to legalise unregistered vehicles and maintain their record.
He argued that amnesty scheme was successful as around 50,900 vehicles were registered in the country.
He further said that FBR had generated Rs 16 billion through amnesty scheme. Athar prayed the court to suspend order of single bench for declaring the scheme illegal.
On June 19, the IHC had declared that amnesty scheme to legalize non-duty paid smuggled cars had caused a direct revenue loss of Rs 35 billion to the national kitty.
