PESHAWAR, Feb 2: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) on Wednesday informed the Peshawar High Court that Aftab Sherpao had not been exempted from payment of customs duty on the import of a Mercedes car when he was chief minister of the NWFP.

The CBR and the Customs Collectorate of Appraisement (Karachi) have filed comments in reply to a writ petition filed by Aftab Sherpao challenging the levy of Rs10 million duty on the Mercedes car he had imported in 1996.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Fazalur Rehman, took up for hearing the writ petition and directed petitioner's counsel Zafar Abbas Zaidi to file a rejoinder to the comments.

Deputy Attorney-General Salahuddin Khan appeared for the federal government and contended that under the law, the chief minister was not entitled to the exemption of customs duty.

The two respondents in their comments stated that under a presidential order, the president, prime minister, governors and chiefs of the three forces were exempted from payment of customs duty on the import of a vehicle up to 3200CC.

This was a one-time exemption, it stated. But the chief ministers were not mentioned in the order, therefore, they were not entitled to that exemption, said the statement.

When Mr Sherpao was informed about the non-inclusion of the chief ministers in the presidential order, he sought time for the production of an exemption certificate, but failed to produce any document and the government issued him notice to pay the duty.