PESHAWAR: The Customs Collectorate Peshawar has planned to re-confiscate hundreds of non-custom paid (NCP) and tampered vehicles auctioned by the provincial Excise and Taxation Department.
Sources in the Customs Collectorate, Peshawar, told Customs Today that lists of non-duty paid vehicles that were auctioned by the Excise and Taxation Department had been sought and re-confiscation of the same would be started.
They said that the Excise and Taxation department had disposed off hundreds of non-duty paid and unregistered vehicles of different brands and make through 79 auctions, while it was the domain of the Customs authorities to dispose off these vehicles.
A dispute over the legal jurisdiction of the Customs and Excise and Taxation department to dispose off these vehicles has erupted after these auctions, they added. The customs authorities have taken up the matter with the administration and Excise and Taxation departments and they have now planned to re-seize the non-duty paid vehicles disposed of by the Excise during through these auctions.
The sources also shared the minutes of a meeting where the provincial administration department has informed that the department would also stop disposing all non-duty paid and confiscated vehicles without prior permission of the customs authorities.
According to the minutes, the meeting was informed that under the Customs Act 1969, it was the domain of the customs authorities to dispose non-duty paid vehicles, both tampered and non-tampered.
And as per the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee, the confiscated non-duty paid tampered vehicles should be provided to any federal or provincial department on payment of token charges and after exhausting their useful life, these vehicles should be returned to the Customs collectorate for disposal.
However, the Excise and Taxation department argued that as per the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (road checking, seizure and disposal of motor vehicles) Rules 2015, the vehicles, which are either customs-paid or non-customs paid and registered or unregistered with fake documents, were seized and had been disposed off under the law.
However, the customs authorities didn’t agree with the argument of the Excise department and the opinion of the law department was sought in this respect. The representative of the law department informed the meeting that there existed some inconsistency in the federal and provincial laws on the matter and under Article 143 of the constitution and in case of any contradiction between the two laws, the federal law prevailed.
The secretary administration department has endorsed the view point of the law department and halted further auction of such vehicles by the department without prior permission of customs authorities. It was also suggested the provincial law could be brought into conformity with the federal law or the matter should be referred to the Inter-provincial Coordination Department to take up the case with the federal government.
The director general Excise and Taxation department through a letter approached the provincial government that the auctions had been held in accordance with the law and rules. However, he also wrote to secretary Excise and Taxation that the matter should be resolved by either amending the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (road checking, seizure and disposal of motor vehicles) Rules 2015 for removal of contradiction with the federal laws or be taken up with the federal government.
The matter has not yet been resolved and the customs authorities have sought the lists of non-duty paid vehicles so that the process of re-seizure of non-duty paid vehicles auctioned by the Excise department could be initiated.
