August 21, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 22, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Aug 20: About 40,000 non-custom duty paid vehicles of different kinds have been detected plying on roads in both federally and provincially administered tribal areas, officials conceded.

The existing phenomenon of non-custom duty paid and unregistered vehicles causes substantial loss to the national exchequer in form of motor vehicle tax and customs duty as the government agencies have failed to block smuggling of vehicles from Afghanistan.

“The government agencies are taking certain steps to curb vehicles smuggling from Afghanistan, but it is still going on with the connivance of border security forces,” an official, dealing with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) affairs, said.

NWFP Excise and Taxation Minister Fazal Rabbani told Dawn that over 30,000 non-custom duty paid and unregistered vehicles had been detected in the Malakand region, comprising five districts — Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Shangla and Buner — and the provincially-administered Malakand tribal agency.

Mr Rabbani said it was a federal government’s subject to legalise the non-custom duty paid vehicles, adding that his department was planning to send a set of proposals to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to address the issue.

Roughly, he said, the CBR could earn over Rs7 billion by announcing special package for non-custom duty paid vehicles in the province.

The government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif had announced one time regularisation package for non-custom duty paid vehicles and large number of people had availed this opportunity.

The NWFP Governor’s Fata Secretariat has recently received data from seven tribal agencies and two frontier regions which revealed that the concerned political agents had allotted local numbers to 13,268 vehicles of different models and kinds.

The agency-wise break-up of the non-custom duty paid vehicles in Fata are: Bajaur 551, Mohmand 998, Khyber 2,260, Orakzai 354, Kurram 2,270, North Waziristan 3,705, South Waziristan 2,571, FR Tank 49 and FR Kohat 10.

Scores of smuggled vehicles are parked in godowns across the police checkpoint in the tribal locality adjacent to Karkhano Market close to Peshawar, witnesses said.

NWFP Governor’s Fata Secretariat officials said political authorities in seven agencies had been directed not to allot local registration to non-custom duty paid vehicles in their respective areas. The authorities had set July 7 as the last date for the registration of the smuggled vehicles in Fata.

One official said the political agents had provided lists of locally registered vehicles to the Inspector-General of Frontier Corps, governor’s Fata Secretariat to stop further registration of smuggled vehicles in the tribal regions.

“The drive was started to authenticate the smuggled vehicles, but not to legalise them,” according to the officials, saying that the administration would not involve CBR at this stage.

“At least it will discourage the smuggling of vehicles in bulk from Afghanistan,” they said, adding that illegal vehicles were making their way to the down parts of the country. The government has directed the Frontier Constabulary to take measures to stop vehicles smuggling from the neighbouring country.

Sources said situation regarding non-custom duty paid vehicles was worsening day by day in Malakand region. Excise and Taxation Department recently detected around 9,546 non-custom duty paid and unregistered vehicles in Malakand region during a sample survey.

A source said the local police stations had collected data about thousands of smuggled vehicles, either parked in more than 200 non-registered bargain centres or could be seen on the roads in the area with fake registration number plates.

As a result of increase in the smuggled vehicles, the revenue in the head of motor vehicle tax is continuously sliding in Malakand region. The concerned department has collected Rs48.3 million in the shape of motor-vehicle registration tax in 2001-02 which slumped to Rs45.7 million during the last financial year.

“The taxation staff is in difficult situation to differentiate between the legal and illegal vehicles,” a senior official said.

The authorities, officials said, were helpless to take action against smuggled vehicles in the area because the federal government did not extend the Custom Act to Malakand region, although the provincial government had extended Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965, to the same area. Under section 23 of the ordinance, “Motor vehicle is not to be driven without registration.”

The department concerned had sought assistance from the Inspector-General of Police to direct the district police officers to help the excise and taxation officers in checking flow of non-custom duty paid vehicles in urban centres in Malakand region.