PESHAWAR, Oct 5: The NWFP government in gross violation of all federal and provincial laws has decided to use confiscated and seized smuggled vehicles by the provincial government departments.
The illegal orders contained in a summary approved by the NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani early this month said that all vehicles including the 23 non-custom-paid vehicles parked in the warehouse of NWFP Excise & Taxation Department be handed over to the NWFP Administration Department for use by the government departments.
Significantly, by doing so, the NWFP government over-ruled a decision by the former cabinet led by the incumbent Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah which in a meeting in October 2002 had decided that smuggled vehicles seized by the NWFP Excise Department be auctioned and the money raised be deposited with the Customs Collectorate.
It had also decided that evaluation of such vehicles be done through the Collectorate of Customs.
The chief minister however, reversed the decision in June 2003 and directed that vehicles confiscated by the Excise Department be immediately handed over to the Administration Department.
In response, the secretary excise & taxation, Syed Khalid Hussain Gillani in a communique in July, 2003 referred to the decision taken by the previous cabinet regarding the auction of non-custom-paid vehicles by the Collectorate of Customs.
The chief minister in a summary moved in September approved the recommendation that all seized and confiscated vehicles including the smuggled non-custom-paid ones be handed over to the administration department.
An official in the Collectorate of Customs familiar with the case described the decision of the provincial government as illegal. He said that the Collectorate of Customs had seized those vehicles and a proper seizure notice was also served on the provincial government.
He said that the collectorate had done a preliminary appraisement of the vehicles and estimated the total customs duty at Rs11.78 million.
He said that the provincial government neither had the authority to auction those vehicles on its own nor could it hand them over to any department or individual for use.
The official said that the seized vehicles were currently going through the process of adjudication by the additional collector customs and the owners would be given the right to defend themselves.
“Only after they fail to prove their case the collectorate could confiscate those vehicles and put them on auction”, he pointed out.
“What the provincial government has done is sheer violation of the Customs Act. Nobody can waive the customs duty. The President of Pakistan can waive the customs duty through an Ordinance or the federal legislature through an Act of money bill. If the President of Pakistan can not have these powers, how can the chief executive of a province take such a decision?”
He said that the seized vehicles were a federal government property and the provincial government had no right to use them.
“The owners of those vehicles might as well go to court”, he pointed.
Investigation by Dawn revealed that the provincial government has violated even its own North-West Frontier Province (Seizure and Disposal of Motor Vehicles) Rules, 1999.
The rules clearly provide for a procedure for the seizure and confiscation of vehicles whose owners fail to prove their bona fide ownership and its disposal by way of sale in an open auction committee through an auction committee to be constituted by the provincial government.
“The sale proceeds thereof shall, after clearance of the dues of the Customs Department, if any, in the form of custom duty, sales tax, Iqra Tax etc, be paid into government treasury”, section 9 of the 1999 rules reads.