KARACHI: The Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-I will conduct the hearing into the tax evasion case of Rs 772 million by a cellular company Q-Mobile and its authorized dealers M/s Digicom (Pvt) Limited and M/s New Allied Electronics today (Thursday).
According to details, it would be a fifth hearing into the tax evasion case linked with the cellular company Q-Mobile and its authorized dealers M/s Digicom (Pvt) Limited and M/s New Allied Electronics.
It is pertinent to mention here that the departmental representatives of Q-Mobile Afzal Ahmed Bhatti, Director (Operations) Sarfarazuddin and Mian Pervez have already submitted the written reply into the case in which they stated that around 2.4 million cellular phones including smart phones had been cleared under SRO280(I)/2013, paying less sales tax, additional sales tax and withholding tax. However, the Model Customs Collectorate Multan had constituted the case on the basis of SRO460(I)/2013 which was introduced in May 2013, while the aggrieved party was of the view that it had cleared the cellular phones in the month of April 2014, when the SRO280(I)/2013 was not effective.
Furthermore, the departmental representative of MCC-Multan had not attended any of the hearings conducted on 22 Sept, 13 Oct, 27 Oct and 13 Nov, 2014.
MCC-Multan had constituted a contravention report against M/s Q-Mobile on 26 August, 2014 in which it stated that the importer M/s Q-Mobile and its authorized dealers M/s Digicom (Pvt) Limited and M/s New Allied Electronics were involved in the tax evasion to the tune of Rs772 million in terms of additional sales tax and customs duty by violating the SRO460(I)/2013 in importing around 2.4 million cellular phones of different models and description.
According to the contravention report made by MCC-Multan, the total number of non-duty paid imported mobile phones were 2,409,660 including 1,194,385 by New Allied Electronics (Pvt) Ltd and 1,215,275 by Digicom (Pvt) Ltd with shortage of total sales tax of Rs680,505,450; additional sales Tax of Rs54,229,279 and income tax of Rs37,093,227 which made up the total recoverable tax of Rs771,827,956.
The sources informed Customs Today that there is a possibility that the Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-I will acquit the aggrieved party i.e. M/s Q-Mobile from the tax evasion case, as the departmental representative of MCC-Multan has not attended any of the hearings conducted before in the office of the Collectorate of Customs Adjudication-I.
It may be mentioned here that the Owner of the New Allied Electronics Mian Pervez is one of the main stakeholders in the renovation project of Eduljee Dinshaw Road Project, which was recently kicked-off by the Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan, adding that Mian Pervez has cordial relations with some of the key officers of Pakistan Customs.
These factors may also play vital role in acquitting the M/s Q-Mobile and its authorized dealers i.e. M/s New Allied Electronics and M/s Digicom in tax evasion case.
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