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Tuesday March 19, 2024

FBR slaps 10pc fine on clearance of unregistered mobile phones

By Our Correspondent
January 17, 2019

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday said that the unregistered phone devices will be released after payment of a fine of 10 percent of the total duty and taxes.

“Mobile devices with SIM or IMEI functionality brought into Pakistan in violation of the Customs Act, 1969, which have been seized or voluntarily presented to the Customs authorities after January 15, 2019, shall be released on the payment of applicable duty and taxes along with the imposition of five equivalent to 10 percent of the amount of duty and taxes involved,” the FBR said.

The federal government has initiated efforts to ensure compliance of mobile phones with valid IMEI.

In this regard, an amnesty was announced, offering people to register their cell phones with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

This scheme; however, expired on

January 15, 2019 and now only active

mobile phones with valid IMEI would

be activated phone networks in

Pakistan.

In a recent statement, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said that all mobile devices, including non-compliant (having SIM/IMEI functionality) active on Pakistani mobile networks till January 15, 2019, will remain operational without service interruption.

“Non-compliant mobile devices will be paired with user's mobile number within the cutoff date,” it added.

The Federal Board of Revenue issued SROs 51 and 52 for implementing the procedure of clearance of imported mobile phones and clearance of seized unregistered phones or voluntary presented to the Customs authorities after January 15, 2019.

According to the Federal Board of Revenue, the applicable duty and tax structure on the import of mobile handsets included Customs and regulatory duties up to $130/set; sales tax up to Rs1,500/set; advance sales tax at three percent; advance income tax at six percent for filers and nine percent for non-filers; and mobile handset levy up to Rs5,000/set.

To collect fine for clearance of unregistered phone devices, the Federal Board of Revenue also upgraded the posts of Customs officials.

The FBR said for this purpose additional collector had been empowered to exercise the powers of collector of Customs.

Similarly, deputy collector and assistant collector have been empowered to exercise the powers of additional collector.