PESHAWAR: Court orders customs to unseal petrol pump
By Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, April 5: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Monday directed the Customs Department to unseal a patrol station. The bench also allowed the petitioner to lift Rs770,000 worth of petrol intended for export to Afghanistan.
The bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Qaim Jan Khan admitted for hearing a writ petition challenging the sealing of the Nawaz Filling Station at Taro Jabba (Nowshera), by the Customs Departent. The petition was filed by the proprietor of the filling station.
Customs charged that Star Enterprises had availed incentives for export of petroleum to Afghanistan, but instead of exporting the said petrol to Afghanistan the concerned oil tanker unloaded it in the said filling station, thus evading taxes under different heads.
An FIR was registered at Customs Investigation and Prosecution Branch on Mar 31 in which it was stated that the director general for Customs intelligence had received information about the unloading of petrol into different petrol stations instead of being exported to Afghanistan.
It added that an oil tanker (LSA 237) was followed from Karachi where it had loaded the petrol and finally the said tanker was emptied at the said filling station.
Four persons, including the driver and cleaner of the tanker were arrested, and accused under various laws including Control of Excise Act and Rules, Sales Tax Act 1990, Import and Export Control Act 1950, Petroleum Products (Development Levy) Ordinance 1961 and Customs Act 1969.
The petitioner informed the court that there was leakage in the oil tanker due to which the petrol was for the time being unloaded and stored in the filling station, which had to be again loaded in the tanker after necessary repairs on the tanker.
Advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for the petitioner and argued that the malafides of the Customs officials was evident from the fact that about half a dozen laws were mentioned in the FIR and none of it were applicable to the case.
The bench inquired from the Customs counsel why they acted in haste. The bench observed that they should have taken action once the empty tanker had reached Torkham for clearance from the Customs officials on the border. However, the bench observed that in that case the concerned officials in league with the alleged offenders would have been exposed and the Custom intelligence did not want to expose its officials.
