KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), in Finance Bill 2017, has suggested to give five-year imprisonment to the persons involved in illicit manufacture and trade of cigarettes.
Finance Bill 2017 proposed certain penalties are prescribed which includes imprisonment up to five years or with additional fine which may extend to an amount equal to the loss of tax involved, or with both.
The Table under Section 33 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 provides general and specific penalties in the specified circumstances. The finance bill proposed to expand the scope of penalties by inserting new Sr. No.23 to the table which provides that any person who manufactures, possesses, transports, distributes, stores or sells cigarette packs without, or with counterfeited, tax stamps, banderoles, stickers, labels or barcodes shall be liable to outright confiscation and also be liable for a penalty of twenty five thousand rupees to one hundred percent of the amount of tax involved, whichever is higher.
