The interpretation of financial year 2006-2007 as calendar year (January-December 2007) by some customs officials of Karachi has resulted in the clearance of over 100 vehicles in a clear violation of Import Policy Order.
Sources told Business Recorder on Friday that the officials committed two major violations during the clearance process. Firstly, they managed to clear vehicles till December 31, 2007 despite the fact that the financial year 2006-2007 ended on June 30, 2007. The exemption was available on the import of specific vehicles during year 2006-2007 under the Appendix-C of the Import Policy Order.
The customs officials were so ignorant that they thought that 2006-2007 means year ending on December 31 2007 and cleared over 100 vehicles in clear violation of import policy order. The words ''year 2006-2007'' clearly showed time period ie July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007. It seemed that the suspended officials have deliberately cleared vehicles beyond the laid down period taking the plea that the Import Policy Order was not clear on the issuance of vehicles.
Sources said that second violation related to the clearance of vehicles, as these were 10 years old. The accused officers cleared over 10 years old vehicles ignoring the import policy restrictions.
The most interesting part of the story is that nobody bothered to obtain clarification from the FBR about the status of clearance of such vehicles. Resultantly, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had suspended 6-7 customs officials including additional collectors and appraisers, who cleared used vehicles from different collectorates including appraisement collectorate, Karachi during a period of six months of last year. The inquiry is underway against the officers to ascertain whether they deliberately cleared the vehicles or it was done inadvertently.
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