ISLAMABAD, July 13: The tax authorities have agreed to the proposals of car dealers and importers to rework out the levy of fixation of duty and taxes on imported vehicles in dollar terms.

Member customs Mohammad Ramzan Bhatti told Dawn on Tuesday that the collector of appraisement, Karachi, had been directed to rework out the fixation of the amount of duties and taxes on imported vehicles in collaboration with stakeholders (car dealers and importers).

A customs general order (CGO) No 6, issued on Saturday for fixation of duties and taxes in dollar terms on new imported vehicles, had created a confusion in the market followed by another report that the CGO only meant for baggage and transfer of residence.

The stakeholders belonging to Karachi and Lahore met Mr Bhatti here on Tuesday and called for revision of duties, which according to them were higher than the actual payable by them under the new rates announced in the budget 2004-05.

Mr Bhatti claimed that the stakeholders were not against the scheme itself, but demanding the re-calculation of duties and taxes. He admitted that there might be a chance of mistakes in calculation of duties and taxes on new imported vehicles.

He said the CGO was not binding for all importers. The scheme announced in the CGO was optional for importers, he said and added they could import vehicles under normal process.

"The CGO cannot overrule the statutory decision," he said and added it was aimed at working out procedures to provide facilities to importers. The member customs said old vehicles could only be imported by overseas Pakistanis under the baggage scheme and transfer of residence scheme.

According to sources, the stakeholders had asked the customs officials to seek information from Pakistan's trade missions abroad about the factory prices of different vehicles, particularly from China and Korea for calculation of factual duty.

They said following the collection of data from almost all car manufacturing countries, duties should be fixed on import of different vehicles. The sources said the stakeholders had also been asked to work out independently the duty and taxes on import of vehicles from different countries. Final fixation of levy on imported vehicles would be worked out jointly, the sources added.