KARACHI: The Federal Budget 2014-15, scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, is envisaging drastic changes in the duty/tax structure on import of vehicles, sources told Customnews.pk.
According to details reaching here, the duty on import of concrete mixtures is going to be increased from 30% to 60%. The existing duty on dump trucks is 60%, and a lot of importers misdeclare dump trucks as concrete mixtures to evade duty. This measure would eliminate this mis-declaration that had been causing huge revenue loss to the exchequer.
Moreover, the FED on the import of luxury cars is reported to be eliminated while regulatory duty on import of luxury cars is also being slashed to half from the existing 50 percent.
It was also learnt that the depreciation allowed on hybrid cars ranging 1200cc to 1800cc is being reduced from existing 50% now to 25%, while zero percent depreciation would be admissible on hybrid cars ranging 1800cc to 2500cc.
Sources said that the proposed duty structure on luxury cars would be withdrawn within a month as this was being introduced to favor certain quarters.
It may be mentioned here that the diplomat’s cars are imported duty-free, but when these cars are sold in the local market, duty and taxes have to be paid. There was this ambiguity as to what price these diplomat’s vehicles should be assessed. The embassies/consulates were of the view that the vehicles should be assessed as per the dollar values at the time of import. Now, these vehicles would be assessed on current currency rates.
It was known that, a large number of vehicle importers had been holding their consignments hoping relaxation in duty/taxes/depreciation, but as soon as the revision in duty structure was hinted, a large number of GDs were filed on Monday, one day ahead of the budget announcement.
But to the disappointment of the importers, an incidental fault occurred in WeBOC at 1100 hours Monday morning, and the PRAL team was able to restore the system at 1900 hours Monday evening.
Sources said that this incidental fault in the WeBOC system would result in additional revenue collection of over Rs500 million as the machine number could not be allotted to these GDs and the revised duty/tax structure would be applicable from June 03, 2014.