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Friday March 29, 2024

13 former Customs officials acquitted of tax evasion charges

By Our Correspondent
May 24, 2018

After the passage of eight years, the Special Customs and Taxation Court disposed of multiple scam cases against former Customs officials and acquitted all 13 accused who were alleged to have been involved in tax evasion of billions of rupees on containers imported for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under the 2010 Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement.

In the hearing on Wednesday, the judge observed that the prosecution had failed to prove charges against the accused due to a lack of evidence and announced acquittal for the 13 accused in all seven cases. The court acquitted former Customs officials, clearing agents and other staff members identified as Sardar Amin Farooqui, Noor Akbar Mehar, Muneer Ahmed Brohi, Mohammad Rafique, Arshad Ali, Mehfooz Ali Khan, Mohamamd Abbas, Abdul Aziz Imrani, Shaukat Hussain, Mohammad Yaseen, Shahid Rauf, Saeed Babar and Mohammad Irfan.

The court observed in its verdict that the investigators completely failed to present the documents and proofs regarding the claims made by the Afghan importers. The court also held that a proper investigation was not done as the drivers of the containers in question were not nominated in the FIRs. The judge concluded that due to these failures, the court had no choice but to acquit the people nominated in the cases.

It is pertinent to note that the issue of missing ISAF containers was taken up by the Supreme Court in 2011 as a result of which the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had launched an investigation in July 2011. The chairman of the board had then reported to the Supreme Court that more than Rs47 billion were evaded in tax as 23,882 containers in the commercial category under Afghan Transit Trade were missing.

The chairman also admitted that 19,000 containers dispatched to Afghanistan through the Chaman and Torkham borders under the non-commercial category for ISAF between January to October 2007 were not found thereby causing huge losses to the national treasury.

He informed the court that FIRs were lodged against the culprits, including importers, clearing agents, terminal/port operators, customs officials, shipping agents and transporters in the 147 missing containers incident whereas a letter of explanation was also issued to the officers concerned. However, since charges could not be proved against any of the accused nominated in the seven cases, the court acquitted them on Wednesday.