KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has failed to entertain hundreds of applications seeking amnesty for legalizing smuggled and non-duty paid vehicles on the last day of the facility.
Customs sources said that the as per announcement the FBR had not extended the date and all those vehicles that were not processed or cleared were stand illegal and customs authorities would impound them with immediate effect.
The sources said that on the last day i.e. March 31 the customs authorities had not accepted any new application for processing and cleared only those vehicles on which applications were lying pending.
Customs officials said that a large number of vehicles deprived of amnesty scheme despite information made to customs authorities for availing the facility. “For such vehicles the FBR may extend the time for one week,†an official said.
Besides, those vehicles on which applications were submitted there were hundreds of smuggled vehicles were reached on Sunday (March 31) seeking amnesty but their owners failed to get access to customs offices. The sources said that for those vehicles a directive would be issued from the office of the caretaker prime minister for allowing amnesty.
The sources said that the FBR had not further relaxed in the deadline due to news item of customnews.pk mentioned huge influx of smuggled vehicles from Afghanistan intending clearance under amnesty scheme.
The FBR issued the amnesty scheme through SRO 172(I)/2013 on March 05 but due to procedure bottlenecks the implementation was started after a week.
The customs sources said that under the amnesty about 22,000 vehicles were cleared. However, they have no details about the revenue collected under this scheme.
The FBR in a case of Balochistan Law and Order informed the Supreme Court of Pakistan that it had data of 33,000 smuggled and non-duty paid vehicles plying on the roads.
On March 28, the FBR issued a notification stating that it had cleared 10,000 vehicles and collected Rs3 billion under amnesty scheme.
FBR fails to entertain hundreds of applications on last day of amnesty scheme
