Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

The duty drawback scheme and the manner in which these rebates are
sanctioned is self-explnatory about the in-built provisions for corruption. For
example, consider the following examples:
One hundred percent man-made fibres yarn and blended yarn (65% manmade
and 35% cotton fibre) are both entitled to refund at Rs 6.75 per KG.
However 50 percent blended yarn (50% man-made and 50% cotton) is
entitled to rebate at Rs 3.33 per KG, with the result that a small favour by
the custom official could double the amount of rebates paid to exporters.
Order no SI/MIsc/20/95-EXR-dated April 6, 1996 issued by the Collector of
Customs Karachi revealed that discretionary powers of the Customs
officials and the complex manner in which rebates are worked out. The
order said that rebate of central excise duty is admissible on tents and
tarpalin at a rate of RS 2.50 per KG, on the net wight of textile matirial but
exporters have been claiming rebate of non-textile component of their
export consignment also. Exporters were therefore, advised that in future,
they shall declare weight of textile and non-textile matirial seperately on
the bill of export and with relevant export documents. It asked the
processing section to ensure that the wight of textile and non-textile
material is declared seperately and that rebate of central excise is paid
only on the textile component.
While corruption cases in customs rebate have been freqently reported,
very little is known about the drawback of income tax permissible, in
respect of income earned from export of 258 locally manufactured items.
Of these 220 items enjoy 90% rebate, 35 items 75% and only one item i.e
yarn enjoy 25% rebate. An article in daily Dawn elaborated how the facility
was grossly misused "by deducting huge amounts of income tax at
importation stage and then equally huge refunds were made, after the final
tax liability was determined".
In the first week of January 1995, high officials of Export Promotion
Bureau and Collectorate of Customs, Lahore were arrested for
involvement in the rebate scandal of Atlantic Carpets. According to
newspaper reports, the firm claimed to have sent 94 consignments of
carpets to Europe and USA in a single day and claimed a rebate of Rs 60
million on the cosignment valued at 17.8 million dollars.
In January 1995, customs collectorate Karachi seized a consignment
declared as 6000 dozens of knitted T-shirts of various colors and prints
valued at Rs 1.5 million but on inspection the lot was found to be
consisting of second hand T-shirts, 100 percent substandard factory
rejects and semi-stitched pieces of different garments. The consignment
was only meant to file rebate claim.
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