Raza Kazmi
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued a clarification on the aired news about excess charging of customs duties and taxes on mobile phones.
FBR has stated that recently, in a meeting with PTA, it transpired that the passengers can register up to 5 mobile phones on their passports and in case of high-end phones of more than USD 500, the difference of duty/taxes between passport and CNIC registration is about Rs. 9,000/-.
Accordingly, in order to correct this anomaly and to limit the registration of mobile phone against passport up to one set, the WeBOC module was modified through CRF (change request form). However, during the process, the exemption of withholding tax was also deleted and thus now the system was showing total taxes on passport as Rs 36,720/-.
FBR has stated that the issue has been taken up with Director (R&A) Karachi and the team is reviewing the module to resolve the issue and restore the previous amount of leviable duty/taxes.
The issue will be resolved tomorrow afternoon. Due to this glitch in the system, all those who paid more duty would be refunded the excess amount forthwith. FBR regrets inconvenience caused to those who had to pay excess duty and taxes.
