Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 33

Customs Act (IV of 1969)--S. 33---Establishment of Office of Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance (XXXV of 2000), Ss.9 & 10---Denial of refund claim---Complainants imported several consignments of machinery, equipment, spare parts and construction materials---Under the benefit of concessional duties and taxes vide notification, subsequent to clearance of those consignments Federal Government granted total exemption of import duties and taxes with retrospective effect---Complainants accordingly submitted refund claims to the Customs authorities---Complainants kept on pursuing the refund claims from 1997 till 2005 but to no avail---In spite of the contract specific retrospectivity of the exemption granted by the Government and in spite of the fact that refund claims were initially filed with original documents in time and Board of Revenue had condoned the time limitation, Assistant Collector of Customs rejected the claims by order-in-original---Second appeal of the complainants was accepted by Customs Appellate Tribunal---Despite the of Customs Appellate Tribunal, Customs Authorities failed to sanction any of the refund claims---Customs Authorities had grossly mishandled the case for the last over twelve years, which was worst form of maladministration on the part of Customs---Entire case being a tell-tale of mischief repeated over and over again, it was recommended that Federal Board of Revenue direct the Collector of Customs to get refund claims of the complainant processed and sanctioned in accordance with decision of Appellate Tribunal within a Period of 30 days; to launch an investigation into the numerous acts of omission and commission on the part of Customs; to proceed against the officers found guilty of maladministration/misstatement of facts in the case and case be included as a case study in the training module of Customs Training Institutions. FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS DR. MUHAMMAD SHOAIB SUDDLE, FEDERAL TAX OMBUDSMAN.---Messrs Ghazi-Barotha Contractors (GBC) complained of delay of twelve (12) years by Islamabad Customs in deciding' their refund claims for Rs.11.98 million against 135 import Bills of Entry. 2. Brief facts of the case are that Messrs…

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