Cleared under VAS: post-clearance audit of 50,000 vehicles ordered

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed Customs department to conduct post-clearance audit of over 50,000 vehicles which were cleared under 'Vehicle Amnesty Scheme' in 2013, it was learnt here Monday. According to sources, the PCA department on the directives of FBR has constituted four teams to determine either duty/taxes were collected as per procedure or these 50,000 vehicles were cleared after receiving short payments.
They said that although the PCA (Lahore) director Saud Imran would be heading all the four teams while deputy directors of the same department - Sumaira Umar, Asma Bashir, Aisha Niazi, and Javeed Sarwar - would be in- charge of the teams of their respective cities. To a question, sources said that these teams had been assigned the task of assessing duty/taxes which were collected while clearing such vehicles under the 'VAS'. Besides, the directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation, FBR, has been ordered to verify the authenticity of the reports whereby it was claimed that these vehicles were cleared without physical inspection. They said that as per notification issued at that time of regularizing non-duty paid smuggled vehicles under 'VAS', motor vehicles having non-tampered engine or chassis numbers, which had been seized or voluntarily presented to customs department, shall not be released without physical inspection and payment of redemption fine along with duty and taxes.
However, the applicants, who were required to get physical inspection of the vehicle done for getting tax amnesty, were allowed to regularise their non-duty paid smuggled vehicles without physical inspection. Sources further said that customs officers were accused of doing 'under the table dealings' for allowing tax amnesty to the smuggled vehicles although such vehicles were not physically present in the country during amnesty period. The Federal Tax Ombudsman had also taken suo motu action against the alleged malpractice, the sources said, adding that the Ombudsman after investigating the matter had recommended to the FBR to conduct PCA of these vehicles.