Research and Development (R&D) wing of Model Collectorate of Customs (MCC) on Wednesday suspended 10 customs officers on charges of involvement in tax evasion scams. Sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the R&D wing of MCC had received a tip-off that some 10 appraisers are misusing their powers to clear consignments against nominal duty and taxes.
Reacting to the information, the R&D wing initiated inquiry against them and found them involved in several tax evasion scams. The sources reiterated that all 10 appraisers would not be reinstated till their innocence is proved. They further said the R&D wing has unearthed some 99 tax evasion cases on imported goods cleared through the Pakistan Computerised Clearance System (PaCCS) involving Rs 366million during September 2009 to June, 2010.
They said the R&D wing has recovered around Rs 253 million duty and taxes from out of charge consignments of food products, chemical, IT products, metal wire, electronic goods, auto parts, tiles and petroleum residue during same period. They also informed that the recovery of duty and taxes was made on account of under-invoicing, fake invoicing, classification errors and misdeclaration of descriptions of consignments.
Moreover, sources said, the R&D wing was established in 2007 aimed at creating deterrence amongst importers but the wing remained ineffective during 2007 to August 2009 because of unnecessary facilitation granted by the Federal Board of Revenue to importers to encourage them to get their consignments cleared through MCC. Resultantly, the R&D wing could only recover Rs 25 million during the said period.
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