KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed all field formation collectorates to compile data regarding cars imported during the last three years, it has been learnt.
Sources informed Customs Today that the FBR has issued the directives after receiving reports of anomalies in the clearance of cars from 2013 to 2015.
The FBR, through a letter, has asked Appraisement-South Chief Collector Abdul Rashid Shaikh to initiate an inquiry into the cases and send a report in this regard.
Following the directives, the chief collector ordered all the collectors of the field formations i.e. Appraisement-East, Appraisement-West and Customs Port Qasim to start investigating the clearance data of the cars imported during the period from 2012 to 2015 to check whether they were cleared lawfully.
The collectors of the filed formations have asked the additional collectors, deputy collectors and assistant collectors of the Car Group to compile the clearance data and submit a report in this regard as soon as possible, so that the same could be forwarded to the high-ups.
The sources informed this scribe that the FBR authorities have received information that around 200 cars were cleared through different field formations despite having incomplete documents, which on one hand damages the national exchequer while on the other hand showing the negligence of the customs officials in Car Group.
It may be mentioned here that the Customs Department had started afresh a grand operation against non-custom-paid vehicles earlier this year, during which the Customs Intelligence seized several vehicles.
The authorities had adopted a comprehensive strategy to nab non-duty-paid vehicles, and claimed that there was a significant decrease in such vehicles plying on roads.
