KARACHI: The Directorate of Internal Audit (Customs) of FBR has formed four teams to audit concessionary imports cleared by the Karachi Customs collectorates during 2012-13 under various trade agreements to determine revenue losses to the national exchequer.
Assistant Director Muhammad Rizwan, Assistant Director Abdul Majeed, Deputy Director Omar Shafique and Deputy Director Baleeghur Rehman to conduct the audit of Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Appraisement West, MCC Appraisement (East), MCC Port Muhammad Bin Qasim and MCC Preventive, respectively.
According to sources, the step to audit the concessionary imports was taken after a report prepared by the Customs authorities last year, in which it was pointed out that concessions provided through different SROs, including for the preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) had causing loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer. In addition, the relief granted by the government have also been misused through under-invoicing or misdeclaration, they said.
An FBR report revealed that Pakistan had made arrangements with some countries which cost the country about Rs 14 billion during 2010-11. The exemptions and concessions provided to them constitute around 15% of the total cost of exemption of customs.
The study concluded that a huge cost of exemption through SROs including FTAs/PTAs requires review of the situation. A huge amount of around Rs95 billion has been estimated as cost of exemptions for 2010-11 on account of customs duty which does not include the impact of zero rating for 400 items, it said.
FBR will decide about the elimination of certain SROs after completion of the procedure of auditing which would be completed within a month.
