ISLAMABAD: Collector Customs Adjudication Islamabad Dr. Akhtar Hussain has issued show-cause notices to six sugar mills and six other companies and persons, including Chaudhry Sugar Mill Limited Lahore, the Thal Industry Corporation Limited, Lahore, Bawany Sugar Mills Limited, Lahore, Hunza Sugar Mills Limited, Lahore, Ashraf Sugar Mills Limited, Lahore, M/s JDW Sugar Mills, Lahore, Nawab Khan (PRAL) staff of customs station Torkham, Shayan International customs clearing agency, Torkham, M/s Ibrar customs agency, Torkham, Abdul Aziz Khan s/o Haji Khudai Raheem, Daud Shah s/o Babak Khan and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman s/o Roohullah, in the case of fake sugar exports.
The collector customs warned them as to why the sugar should not be confiscated as foreign exchange has been lost due to fake export of Rs 260.9 million, lost export development surcharge of Rs 652,379, lost Withholding Tax of Rs 2.61 million, lost federal excise duty realizable on local sales of Rs 169.1 million and the loss caused by sugar mills’ claims to inadmissible subsidy on fake sugar export of Rs 10.84 million plus Rs 43.36 million should not be recovered from them and why a penal action should not be taken against them under Section 156 (14) (14A) of the Custom Act-1969, Section 3(3) of the Imports and Exports (Control Act )-1950 and Section 3(1) of the Federal Excise Act-2005 for violation of Section 32 (1) (2), 32 A (1a), 131 and 178 of the Custom Act-1969and Section 3 (1) of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act-950.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Economic Coordination Committee approved a decision No. 170/28/2014 on December 24, 2014, allowing sugar mills to export 650,000MT sugar to Afghanistan. According to this decision, sugar mills could export this sugar to Afghanistan during the period ending on 15th of July 2015. If sugar was exported after this deadline, the exporting sugar mills would lose subsidy of Rs 10/kg on the exported sugar. The State Bank of Pakistan was to allocate the export quota among sugar mills on first come, first serve basis. If the allocated quota was not exported, the 15 percent advance payment received by the exporting sugar mills was to be withheld.
