KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has sought comments from the tax authorities on a constitutional petition filed by M/s Toray Plastic, seeking return of a post-dated cheque of Rs 494,689.50 with bank interest.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Munib Akhter and Justice Anwar Hussain, heard the petition. The petitioner alleged that the customs officials allegedly cashed the cheque without finalizing the assessment against the consignment of “food keeper”.
Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel stated that the petitioner imported a consignment of “food keeper” from Thailand at the unit price of $1.35/ set and filed goods declaration, and a cheque of Rs 494,689.50 was also furnished to pay duty and taxes. Subsequently, the goods were provisionally released under section 81 of the Customs Act, 1969.
According to the petitioner, the respondents cashed the cheque without any prior information on notice to the petitioner for finalization of assessment.
The counsel argued that the petitioner filed an appeal before the Customs Appellate Tribunal which was decided in favour of the petitioner, however, the respondents did not follow the tribunal’s order.
Citing the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman, Collector of Customs East, Deputy Collector of Customs East as respondents, the petitioner pleaded that the SHC may direct the respondents to return the amount of post-dated cheque of Rs 494,689.50 and declare that the petitioner is also entitled to the bank interest over the amount of cheque intentionally withhold by the respondents.
