Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 202(b)

Customs Act (IV of 1969)--S. 202(b)-Recovery of dues-Blocking of consignment-Petitioner- importer was aggrieved of blocking his consignment by authorities on the basis of a pending FIR-Validity-Authorities acted in expectation of levy of tax and duty consequent upon proceedings in FIR in question and had directly invoked recovery provision of S.202(b) of Customs Act, 1969-Provisions for recovery of government dues could not be used as precautionary measures to be adopted on speculations and expectations of creating of government dues as a result of any proceedings under Customs Act, 1969, as such proceedings could also conclude in favour of taxpayer- Such action of authorities not only caused harassment to taxpayer/business concern, also created unnecessary hurdles in running business but also burdened Courts with undue litigation-High Court directed the authorities to release consignment of petitioner-importer as the same was unlawfully detained by misinterpreting provisions of S. 202(b) of Customs Act, 1969- Constitutional petition was allowed, in circumstances. Messrs Noon Sugar Mills Limited v. The Commissioner of Income Tax, Rawalpindi PLD 1991 SC 1156; Muhammad Amir Khan v. The Controller Estate Duty and another PLD 1962 SC 335 and Assistant Collector Customs v. Messrs Khyber Electric Lamps 2001 SCMR 838 rel. JUDGMENT LUBNA SALEEM PERVEZ, JUSTICE:---.--- The Petitioner, is a business concern, is aggrieved of blocking of his consignment by Customs Authorities imported, vide GD No. IPAF-HC-1479 dated 29.07.2020, at the time of airline gate out on 30.07.2020, without assigning any reason for detaining the goods. 2. Brief facts are that the petitioner imported a consignment of electrical parts on 25.06.2020, called Rotary Laser for agricultural machinery from Limburg Germany for home consumption and paid all the taxes, duties for clearance of the consignment, in accordance with law. After examination/verification by the Appraising Officer, and payment of CAA charges and godown rent, consignment was allowed to gate out -but the same was blocked by the customs authorities who refused to release the consignment, despite written and verbal request. Hence, present…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492