Smugglers have emerged as the main beneficiaries of the amnesty scheme announced for vehicles that did not pay customs fee, with up to 31 vehicles cleared every day by as many as 20 importers.
The scheme, introduced by Federeal Board of Revenue, has been severely criticized as ‘‘discriminatory against the honest taxpayers’, by Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) and Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP). FTO Dr Shoaib Suddle took suo motto notice of the said scheme after recieveing several complaints regarding fake enteries in customs registers which were being used to buy time to smuggle vehicles into the country in order to benefit from this scheme.
According to details, most of the smugglers involved do not even have a National Tax Number, hence there is no question of their eve paying taxes on the imported goods.
For the detailed report, please see:http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-22520-Amnesty-scheme-turns-out-to-be-bonanza-for-car-smugglers
