The Engineering Development Board (EDB) has advised all the Provincial Secretaries (Excise & Taxation) including AJK and Federal Govt. Islamabad to provide company wise & brand wise data of 2/3 wheelers registered during 2009-10 & 2010-11, in accordance with its format.
Dr. Muhammad Zubair, General Manager (Tariff) EDB in his letter No. EDB/TBS-II/11 dated April 21, 2011 stated that OEMs of vehicles are allocated a quota of CKD kits for imports under concessionary regime for the assembly of vehicles during a year based on the production of previous year; and at the end of each fiscal year, the OEMs are required under the SRO, 656(1)12006 to submit the records of inputs used for the assembly/ production of vehicles during, preceding year.
"It has been noted that certain OEMs of 2/3 wheelers procure components from illegal sources and misreport production/ sales of 2/3 wheelers. Further, vehicles (2/3 wheelers) having the engine & chassis numbers are being registered under duplicate numbers in different cities. It has also been reported that certain unscrupulous assemblers have been found involved in getting their products registered with provincial registration authorities against invalid/ bogus manufacturing certificates, purportedly issued by EDB. This malpractice is not only affecting the genuine assemblers of 2/3 wheelers, but also defeating the regulator regime and depriving national exchequer of its legitimate share," the General Manager alleged.
He added that in order to put an end to illegal assembly/ manufacture of vehicles and consequent loss to the exchequer, EDB has established a database to maintain & reconcile the data of production & sales of 2/3 wheelers to ensure proper payment of taxes & duties chargeable thereon. To enable the Engineering Development Board to accomplish the aforesaid task of national importance & interest, assistance from the provincial registration authorities is solicited. It is accordingly requested to kindly provide the company and brand-wise data concerning the 2/3 wheelers registered during the year 2009-10 and 2010-11 (up to March 31st 2011), on the enclosed format, Dr. Zubair concluded.
Copies of this letter were also addressed to; the Member (Inland Revenue) Federal Board of Revenue, Islamabad, and Chairman, Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers' Association (PAMA), Karachi.
It may be mentioned here that various complaints regarding misuse of the EDB facilities as explained above were already on record with FIA and the Customs Department against local Car, Trucks and Tractor Assemblers but amazingly the EDB authorities had never bothered to initiate any such inquiries or called for collection of data about 4-wheelers, which smears discrimination against 2/3 Wheelers.
-Nasir Mahmood
-Published on page#-08 in June-2011 issue of MOBILE WORLD Magazine.
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