The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on the implementation of Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) recommendations to recover an embezzled amount of Rs 55 billion from those involved in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) container scam within two weeks.
Announcing its reserved order on the ISAF container scam judgement implementation, the apex court summoned Chairman FBR to appear in person before the court on the next date of hearing. In its 7-page order, the Supreme Court recalled the FTO findings and recommendations in the instant matter saying, "no progress worth mentioning has been made for the recovery of the loss identified, which is regrettable". Dr Muhammad Shoaib Suddle, the FTO, had given 12 recommendations in the present matter maintaining that customs clearance and cross border certification and reconciliation procedures needed massive improvement, consolidation and rationalisation.
The following are Suddle's recommendations: (i) upgrading of cross checks, (ii) organising the transport system used for Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) on a competitive basis with transporters given a level-playing field, (iii) allowing only bonded carriers to transport ATT cargo, (iv) ISAF/UN/Nato should adopt the same technology and transport precautions as are being used by US Forces (eg RFID seals and effective tracking/ monitoring though GPS), (v) immediate enhancement to secure cargo through RFID seals, (vi) FBR should be split into two Boards, one dealing exclusively with Customs matters and the other dealing with taxes like income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty, and live monitoring through GPS, (vii) ATT cargo should bear bar code embeddings for ease of detection, and to minimise the chances of its smuggling back into Pakistan, (ix) collusion by and corruption of Customs Officials must be effectively discouraged and deterred in a sustainable manner, and a specialised and dedicated Collectorate needs to be created to deal exclusive with the entire cargo in transit to Afghanistan.
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