Smuggled, non-duty paid vehicles: FBR fails to recover huge amount of duty

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is unable to recover huge amount of customs duty from hundreds of smuggled and non-duty paid vehicles confiscated by Police, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary (FC) in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the Police, Rangers and FC have not handed over such smuggled vehicles to the customs authorities as required under the Customs Act, 1969.
Only Customs Courts are the competent authority for proper adjudication of such vehicles confiscated by the said agencies. These agencies have to hand over such smuggled vehicles to the customs department for recovery of huge amount of customs duty involved in such cases.
Sources said that the issue of confiscated vehicles under the Customs Act was discussed during a recent Collectors of Customs Conference covering North Region. The North Region comprises Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Peshawar, MCC Faisalabad, MCC Lahore, MCC Sambrial, MCC Islamabad and MCC Multan.
Sources said that the Chief Collector of Customs North informed the meeting about the status of such non-duty paid vehicles, which were confiscated and later used by police, Rangers and FC. After holding meetings with the I.G Police of Punjab/ Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and DG Rangers and I.G F.C, Chief Collector has written letters to these officers to hand over the smuggled/ non duty paid vehicles seized by their field formations under the Customs Act, 1969. Legally, the adjudication of such non-duty paid vehicles can only be made under the Customs Act. The customs department directed all Collectors of Customs to immediately initiate follow up action so that these vehicles may be disposed of after formal adjudication by the concerned Customs authorities and the amount be credited to Government treasury before June 30, 2011.
The customs authorities were surprised that a number of official and operational vehicles, allocated to the Collectorates, are illegally and are in unauthorised use of officers who are presently not working in the Collectorates. The Chief Collector directed all Collectors of Customs to immediately withdraw such vehicles from the concerned officers.
It was principally agreed in the meeting that government departments/agencies other than the Collectorates/Directorates should not be the first priority in selling confiscated tampered vehicles. The Chief Collector of Customs directed that henceforth all excess confiscated tampered vehicles available with the Collectorates shall be first offered to the MCCs in the North Region for operational use. The left over vehicles shall subsequently be allocated to Directorates of Internal Audit, Directorate General of Post Clearance Audit (PCA), Training and Valuation respectively as per their request. All Collectors were directed to forward their realistic requirement of confiscated vehicles for operational use to the office of the Chief Collector immediately for their placement in order to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and output of government work.
It was also discussed that a number of drivers who are drawing their pays from the Customs Collectorates are illegal and unauthorised as the officers had been transferred there from since long. The Chief Collector directed the Collectors that such drivers may immediately be asked to join the Collectorates failing which their salaries may be stopped forthwith and disciplinary action initiated against them, sources added.