Vehicles smuggled under Amnesty scheme to be impounded

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has declared the controversial Amnesty scheme null and void and ordered to confiscate all the vehicles that were smuggled under the scheme approved by the previous government.

Announcing the final verdict on Tuesday, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC directed the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) to take custody of all the illegal vehicles involved in this scheme. The court was hearing the petition filed by the president of Defence of Human Rights of Public Services Trust, Khawaja Saad Saleem. The petitioner had claimed that the SRO issued on March 5, 2013 gifted legality to all the smuggled and seized vehicles in Pakistan.

“As a matter of fact, persons who have violated the laws of the country by smuggling vehicles of their choice and not paying taxes/duties have been incentivized to smuggle even more vehicles during the subsistence of the amnesty scheme not only without any imposition of allowable age restriction applying on them but also allowing a more relaxed registration scheme compared to the normal scheme in vogue.

“The amnesty scheme has also seriously affected the local car market and automobile manufacturers by disrupting the competitive market and creating a parallel black or grey market for vehicles. This whole amnesty thing has put the future prospects of local automobile industry in jeopardy.

“Although the Amnesty Scheme may have been intended for regularization of vehicles already smuggled into Pakistan, it has created, in its present form, a far worse situation by encouraging and incentivizing further smuggling of cars in connivance with customs and other government officials.

“Such state of affairs has resulted in a colossal loss to the national exchequer in the form of loss of revenue expected from vehicles imported under the Baggage Scheme. Regularization of smuggled cars with full tax impact and also those from the import of brand new cars, due to market saturation during the coming years,” Justice Siddiqui observed.