KARACHI: MCC Appraisement East has recovered around Rs1.56 billion, which was stuck in various bank securities and with the nazir of the court, which the authorities have cashed and received.
Recovery campaign was initiated after Supreme Court of Pakistan has dismissed the ‘leave to appeal’ application of 121 importers seeking stay against the encashment of bank guarantees submitted by them against provisional release of their consignments.
A total amount of Rs1.8 billion was deposited in bank guarantees and with the nazir of the court as differential amount, after the importers of iron steel had impugned the regulatory duty on these products. As many as Rs1.068 billion was deposited in various banks as guarantees of which Rs1.06 billion has been recovered while Rs732 million was with the nazir of court of which Rs500 million has been recovered while the rest would released this week.
Collector Appraisement East Majid Yousafani had formed a team to pursue the recovery of this stuck up amount. The team was led by Deputy Collector Asim Rehman and it included Principal Appraisers Sikander Ali Junejo and Agha Mohammad Aslam. It also included Appraising Officers including Mansoor Adam, Mohammad Qadeer, S.M Sohail, Manzoor Ahmed, Manzoor Rajpar, Aziz Sarwar, Noor Alam Durrani, Azhar Abbas and Preventive Officer Malak Mohammad Hashim.
The recovery team physically several banks ensuring expedition of the process and such a huge amount was recovered in just one month.
The importers were contesting the imposition of Regulatory Duty before the Sindh High Court wherein the court order release of the consignments on submission of bank guarantees equivalent the regulatory duty until the cases was decided.
Later, the High Court dismissed 121 petitions challenging imposition of regulatory duty with an option for the importers to file appeal by September 10,2015.
Subsequently, the Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement East started cashing the bank guarantees and securities submitted by the importers against provisional release of their consignments.
The importers approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan and would seek ‘leave to appeal’ on September 14, 2015 along with stay against withdrawal of securities/guarantees.