FBR asked to pay citizen for auctioning his vehicles

President Dr Arif Alvi has directed FBR to apologise and make payment to a citizen whose three imported vehicles were mishandled by Customs Department, wrongly auctioned by Custom officials at a low price of almost Rs3 million without any notice to him, and the customs duty paid by him was refunded to some unauthorised clearing agents, who later disappeared with the money.

The president directed FBR to verify all receipts/documents, refund the amount as per the assessed value of the vehicles, and refund the duties/charges paid in favour of importers/owners. He also directed the citizen to provide all documents and reconcile with Customs Department enabling FBR to make payment within 30 days. He observed that interest should be added to the payment since the auction money was lying with the exchequer.

Dr Alvi gave these directions while accepting a representation filed by Iftikhar Ahmed Awan (the complainant) against the orders of the Wafaqi Mohtasib. The complainant had stated that overseas Pakistanis, living in Japan, legally imported three vehicles for the personal use of their families and the freight against the vehicles was paid. However, FBR didn’t release the vehicles and sold the three cars in an auction at a low price of Rs3,019,385. Feeling aggrieved, the complainant approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib, who directed FBR to make payment of sale proceeds of vehicles to owners, after verification as to why they were being paid such a low amount.

The complainant then filed a representation with the president praying that Customs Department should be ordered to make payment of the sale proceeds of the vehicles at prevailing market rates as well as refund all the duties/charges which were paid.

During the proceedings, it was pointed out that after the completion of all formalities, the ship carrying the vehicles landed at another terminal and the Customs Department auctioned the vehicles without any notice to the importer, and that the Customs Duty was refunded for unauthorised clearing agents, which resulted in huge financial loss to the importers/owners.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2023.