The Federal Board of Revenue has allowed release of 15 CNG buses, assembled in Dubai with Indian auto parts, on payment of duties and taxes in addition to 30 percent redemption fine. The release of buses has been permitted on one-time authorisation of the Ministry of Commerce.
The board has issued an SRO (I)/2008 here on Friday for this purpose. According to the FBR, 15 CNG buses were imported from Sharjah in CBU condition. These buses were assembled/manufactured with the components/parts imported from India. Therefore, a question arose to determine origin of these buses, since the import of such buses is not allowed from India as per Import Policy Order in vogue.
The Ministries of Commerce and Industries, Production and Special Initiatives informed the FBR to process the cases of import of buses in consultation with the local stakeholders and thorough scrutiny. However, the local industry was agitating that the vehicles were of Indian origin.
In order to mitigate the hardships being faced by the importers and to safeguard the interest of local manufactures/assemblers, the FBR and the Ministry of Commerce proposed to allow one-time import authorisation as a special dispensation subject to the condition that the importer submits an undertaking that such buses would not be imported in future.
The matter was taken up at the ECC of the Cabinet which finally approved the release of 15 CNG buses on one-time authorisation of the Ministry of Commerce on payment of the leviable duty and taxes in addition to the redemption fine equal to 30 percent of their C&F value. In order to give effect to the ECC decision, an amended notification SRO (I) 2008 dated March 12, 2008 has been issued.