KARACHI: A full bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan comprising Justice Umar Ata Bindiyal, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Yahya Afridi allows two appeals 1077 and 1078 of 2011 filed by Collector Customs Karachi in Cigarette Filter Case.
Raja Muhammad Iqbal ASC represented the appellant in appeal against a judgment of High Court of Sindh dated 21-9-2010 in respect of import of Artificial Filament Tow abbreviated as AFCAT made by Fitters Pakistan Private Limited.
The importer sought clearance seeking exemption from Sales Tax under SRO 625 -1 of 2007 by filing Goods Declaration under PCT Heading 5502-0090 which exempts *Textile and articles thereof.
The custom authorities declined the exemption which was challenged upto Order in Appeal by the importer which was then challenged before Sindh High Court which allowed the appeal by importer.
The COllector Customs challenged the same before apex court instant appeals.
The full bench during hearing inquired from counsel of respondent importers that whether the AFACT is a Textile item to which the counsel replied in negative but added that imported items was covered under Chapter 55 to 63 of PCT exemption under SRO 509 of 2007.
The apex court bench also asked that Order in Appeal was not challenged before Special Customs Tribunal The bench later after detailed arguments held that SHC erred holding AFACT as Textile and allowed both the appeals.
As a result CUstoms will get a stuck up revenue of Rupees 3 billion.