June 16, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 15: The government has amended two customs notifications to extend concession to businessmen on import of plant and machinery with retrospective effect.

SRO 491 of 2007 supersedes SRO 572 of 2005, and grants further concession in cases where import was made prior to June 30, 2004.

A customs official said under the said SRO financial instruments, securities or indemnity bonds, etc., shall be released without furnishing the requisite production or installation certificate where customs duty at the rate of five per cent or more was paid.

However, in cases where exemption in the customs duty and sales tax was availed, the period for furnishing or production of installation, consumption certificates or installation-cum-production certificates shall stand extended up to Dec 31.

In cases of imports made under the defunct yellow cab scheme, the indemnity bonds secured 10 or more years earlier would stand released automatically.

This SRO further states that an importer may opt out to forego benefits of duty, concession or exemption availed at import stage by paying customs duty at the existing statutory rates or concessionary rates, but not below the minimum rate of five per cent duty as applicable to the relevant sector.

However, to avail this concession, the importer has to produce proof of payment of the duty latest by Sept 30 to get its bond etc. released.

The said SRO imposes a restriction that the present notification shall not entitle any one to claim refund in respect of previous payments.

It is further stated that the above concessions shall not be applicable to closed transactions or where admissibility of the relevant concession is disputed or where any fiscal fraud, misuse or abuse has been committed or where criminal proceedings were initiated or investigations are under way or cases which are subjudiced before the appellate authorities.

Through another notification (SRO 492 of 2007), the government has granted exemption of custom duty as is in excess of five per cent ad valorem in respect of import of vehicle-tracking system of various brands which comprise an on- board computer, GSM radio modem with installed software and accessories imported during the period from October 1, 2002, to June 12, 2004.