KARACHI: A committee formed to decide the fate of the case linked with the clearance of around 480 cars under vehicles’ amnesty scheme (VAS) has not yet finalised its findings despite passing of adequate time.
According to details, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), on the directives of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), had appointed Additional Collector Irfan Javed as committee head in January to investigate the case.
After that the committee summoned six customs officials, including principal appraiser and appraisers, who were deployed on Car Group (Group-VII) at that time to appear before the committee and record their statements.
The committee also asked the Departmental Representative (DR) appointed by the MCC-Appraisement-West to produce documents related to the case.
Additional Collector Irfan Javed held several hearings during the last five months, but could not conclude the findings yet.
Sources informed Customs Today that the main cause of delay in the inquiring procedure was non-cooperation of the customs officials who were nominated in the inquiry.
The sources further informed that the authorities concerned of FBR through a letter has asked the Committee members to finalize its conclusion by the end of April. However; the committee due to lethargic approach of Customs officials of the then Car Group has failed to meet the deadline set by the FBR into the case.
The sources further informed that the Committee head ADC-Irfan Javed through the DR has re-called those Customs officials who involved into the investigations finally and non-appearance of any of the Customs officials into the final hearing resulting in conviction, sources added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the FTO in its report issued last year, recommended the Customs authorities to initiate inquiry into the clearance of cars under Vehicles Amnesty Scheme (VAS) in which around 480cars were cleared in violation of SRO144(I)/2008 after the age-limit of three years and four months.
