KARACHI: In a rare order, Collector Customs, Adjudication II, Karachi Farrukg Sajjad passing an Order in Original slapped a fine of Rupees 50,000 (Fifty Thousand) each upon three officers of Engineering Development Baord (EDB), another organ of state.
The officials who faces personal penalty are Yasir Qurban, Deputy Manager (Tariff) EDB, Islamabad, Asim Ayaz Deputy General Manager (Coord) EDB Islamabad and Roshan Lal, Manager (South), EDB, Regional Office, Karachi. They were fined for not responding to the Show Cause Notice and were accused of “negligent and in-different attitude towards interest of national exchequer. The order said that: it would be a travesty of justice if they go scot free”.
According to details, an F.I.R was registered against Essa Farooq ofEssa Steel, Saleem Malik of Zoya Steel, Ghulam Jafar of Jair Traders, Muhammad Yousafof Fine Steel , Abid Khan of Modern Steel, Muhammad Asif of A.R. Industries (importers of steel sheets) and Muhammad Siddique of G S S Traders, clearing agent.
The accused/imported as per declaration imported Galvanized Steel Sheets in Bundles of Secondary Qaulity and paid Custom Duty @ 1 per cent, ACD @ 2 per cent and Sales Tax @ of 17 per cent.
They were later accused of misdeclaration of description, size and grades of steel coils and evasion of duty and taxes by claiming benefit of SRO 655 (1) 2006 dated 22-6-2006.
As per contravention report the importers who manufactured Silencers for Motorcycles 70 CC, 100 CC and 125 CC showed weight of each unit of being 7.9 Kilogram while as per customs it should not be more than 3.62 Kg per unit, thus they have showed over utilization. The EDB officers were accused of issuing Input Output Ratio & Capacity Utilization Certificate 0r IOCR to these manufacturers/importers who were slapped with huge fine and penalties besides EDB officials.
It may be the first case in which officials of one government agency fined officers of another government department.
Intelligence Officer Humair Uddin represented the Directorate of I&I in adjudication proceedings.