FBR detects 15 Benami goods transport vehicles

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued notices to goods transporters for not disclosing possession of heavy motor vehicles in their annual statement of assets, sources said on Friday.

The sources said the Benami Zone Karachi had identified around 15 heavy vehicles that were meant for goods transportation but the owners were different from the persons having possession of those vehicles.

They said these heavy vehicles include trucks and trailers. The Benami Zone issued notices to the persons for explaining the money used for purchasing the vehicles as no such records were found in their annual wealth statements.

The sources said Karachi Benami Zone had expanded the monitoring of benami motor vehicles. A day earlier, the zone made public the details of 16 passenger motor vehicles, which were allegedly found in benami vehicles.

According to the public notice, these vehicles would be confiscated if persons having possessions failed to explain the source of money that was used to purchase the vehicles.

The zone has given final opportunity through the public notice before attachment under the Benami laws.

The latest initiatives by the Karachi Benami Zone were in addition to 20 benami vehicles that were under confiscation after an order passed by the adjudicating authority.

Explaining the procedure of confiscation, the sources said following an order passed by the Benami Adjudicating Authority the aggrieved persons had the opportunity to file an appeal before the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue. However, in the cases of 20 motor vehicles none of the purchaser or beneficial owners filed an appeal before the next judicial forum against the order within stipulated time period. After lapse of the time for filing the appeal, the FBR authorities had initiated confiscation process.

In order to discourage transactions having different beneficial owners than the actual purchasers, the government introduced the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 2017 which becomes operative in March 2019.