LAHORE: Islamabad High Court has directed Federal Board of Revenue to provide legal cover to non-registered vehicles of amnesty scheme.
The scheme, which provided duty and tax concessions on imported vehicles, was launched through a statutory regulatory order (SRO) issued on March 5, 2013 and ended on April 6 this year. Under this scheme, 61,405 vehicles were cleared.
The division bench, comprising Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan and Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi, announced the verdict and suspended the order of a single bench against the amnesty scheme while hearing an intra-court appeal filed by FBR.
During the course of hearing, FBR’s counsel Athar Minallah pleaded that the SRO for the amnesty scheme was issued in accordance with the law as Customs Act 1961 empowered the federal government to issue such schemes. Under the scheme, smuggled vehicles were given a concession on payment of fine and registered after the receipt of a prescribed fee to bring them within legal ambit, he added.
He maintained that the government had earned Rs 15.3 billion through the amnesty scheme, but the single member bench issued directions for the confiscation of vehicles registered under the scheme.
