–Senior officials kept NCP, tampered vehicles for personal use
–Board shows reluctance in taking action against violation of rules
ISLAMABAD: The high-ups of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed reluctance in taking action against those officers who violated the law by keeping non-custom paid (NCP) and tampered luxury vehicles for personal use, Pakistan Today has learned.
According to reliable sources, some senior officers of Inland Revenue Service and Pakistan Customs had kept more than one NCP vehicle and those with tampered engine or chassis numbers for their personal use for months but had surrendered the vehicles after the top court’s instructions.
A senior officer told Pakistan Today that law allows using tempered luxury vehicles for operational use, however, the officials are not allowed to use these vehicles for personal usage.
According to rules, the department can take action against the officers over any violation, but no firm action has yet been taken, the official added.
Supreme Court (SC) during a hearing on April 26 had expressed displeasure over the issuance of luxury vehicles to the officials of FBR, which were either confiscated or beyond the entitlement of the respective officers.
The top court had ordered all divisions or ministries to surrender the vehicles subsequently all the ministries and divisions had issued directions to their officers.
According to a letter, all field formations of the FBR and Pakistan Customs Services have been requested to surrender their luxury jeeps and SUVs.
The departments of the FBR were also directed to present a certificate in this regard which will be furnished to the board. Similarly, supervisory officers of the respective field formations (PCS/IRS) were requested to ensure immediate compliance with these directions.
“Any violation of the above directions shall be viewed seriously by the competent authority and it shall entail a disciplinary action,” the letter stated.
The usage of the NCP and tempered luxury vehicles is a very complicated matter as Pakistan Customs confiscates the vehicles and department are bound to auction the NCP vehicles in a specified period of time.
On the tempered vehicles issue, the department can give it to other departments and field formations for operational use in a certain period of time but due to the supremacy of Pakistan Customs officers in this matter, they keep the vehicles under their personal usage and rarely give them to other departments.
Moreover, the officers said that the Customs officers gave the luxury vehicles to government officers after receiving token money ranging between Rs50,000 to Rs125,000, though the market value of these luxury vehicles is estimated to be over millions.
While talking to Pakistan Today, the spokesperson of FBR said that the Customs officers can use the tempered vehicles as per the instructions of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and the department has to auction the NCP vehicles within a specified time period.