KARACHI: Additional Collector Customs Adjudication Syed Mahmood Hassan has imposed a penalty of Rs300,000 on M/s Lahore for availing the inadmissible benefit of concessionary SROs. The company has also been ordered to pay evaded duty/taxes totaling Rs2.363 million.
According to details, M/s Monnowal Textile Mills Limited imported a consignment of raw cotton & ginned cotton and filed GD availing the facility of sell-declaration available to them determining their duty and taxes on their own and paid the same.
The company was accused to have unlawfully claimed the benefit or SRO 1125/2011 on all consignments and paid Sales Tax Zero Percent under SRO 551(I)/2008 and Income Tax at 1.0 percent while the goods were subject to 5.0 percent income tax at import stage as the concurrent benefit of SRO 212(1)/2013 which is only available to goods that are covered under SRO 1125(1)/2011.
The Customs computerized System cleared their consignments through Green Channel without any human intervention.
M/s. Monnowal Textile Mills Limited was not entitled to the benefit of SRO 1125(I)/2011 in the light of the amending SRO154(I)/2013 which has excluded Raw and Gined cotton from the purview of SRO 1125 (I)/2011 through condition or the said SRO, which has stipulated that the benefit of the SRO will be available to the textile sector from spinning stage onwards. The imported goods were clearly of ginning stage, hence were excluded from the purview of SRO 1125(I)/2011.
After due process and deliberations, Additional Collector Customs Adjudication Syed Mahmood Hasan noted that after introduction of Customs Computerized System, the importer is responsible for assessing and paying his liability of duty/taxes. Thus the importers can’t complain that admissibility of claim of SRO is the sole responsibility of Customs authorities.
Additional Collector Adjudication maintains that payment of sales tax and withholding tax in subsequent GDs by the importers is an ample proof that the importer deliberately made short payment of sales tax and withholding tax.
The Adjudication held charges established and ordered the importer to pay the evaded amount of taxes and imposed a penalty of Rs300,000.