Karachi:- A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar adjourned hearing in a case relating to duty draw back claim after the custom authorities told the court that they went into an appeal before the apex court.
Mumtaz Ghani Textiles filed the case against Secretary Revenue Division and Collector of Customs, Model Customs Collectorate (Exports) maintaining that they have imported different consignments through different bills of export during the fiscal year 2009-2010 attracting duty draw back claims under SRO 212 (1)/2009 dated 5-3-2009 amounting to rupees 15,273,695 .
The respondents instead of issuing cheques of duty draw back issued a show-cause notice to the petitioner and later also imposed a penalty of rupees 1,500,000.
The petitioners filed an appeal before the Collector of Appeals who also dismissed the plea by petitioners. The petitioner assailed the said order before Customs Appellate Tribunal which allowed the appeal and vacated the show cause notice. The customs preferred a Special Customs Reference Application before SHC which was dismissed by the SHC.
When the petition came up for hearing , Masooda Siraj advocate assisted by Zafar Hussain advocate informed the bench that respondents have filed a leave to appeal before Supreme Court of Pakistan which was fixed for hearing on Nov 17 but adjourned due to paucity of time by the apex court.
Khawaja Shamsul Islam counsel for the petitioner said although no stay was given by the apex court but he is not seeking payment of amount. I just want that my NTN blocked by the custom authorities is restored allowing me to enter into business transactions, he requested to the court adding that due to blocking of NTN, hundreds of workers would become jobless.
The bench after hearing counsel for both the sides adjourned further hearing till Nov 27.