NCP cars amnesty scheme extended till April 6th while Transparency International calls to stop this corruption
Although on March 31st, which the first announced last date of legalizing NCP cars, almost 34,000 vehicles were registered on that day alone however, Federal Government has extended the last date of registering illegal vehicles to April 6th. And after the new deadline has passed, from April 8th, Customs Intelligence teams will begin cracking down on illegal vehicles.
However, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has written to FBR Chairman to immediately halt the Amnesty Scheme. In the letter, the adviser to TIP, Syed Adil Gilani has alleged that the amnesty scheme had been misused for corruption through the customs officials.
The letter challenged that the FBR had announced false revenue claims for revenue generation and registering estimated 2.3 million illegal cars already on road however, only 10,000-20,000 were registered and most of them weren’t even in Pakistan while their registration had already been done.
“it was announced by FBR that the scheme is expected to generate revenue of Rs12-15 billion and will give an opportunity to register around 2.3 million vehicles, which are already on the road but, according to reported figures, only 10,000 to 12,000 vehicles have so far availed the facility. Even out of these, thousands of vehicles cleared by FBR are not even available in Pakistan.”
The letter has also been sent to the personal secretary of the prime minister and National Accountability and have asked to investigate why were unrealistic figures shown to get approval of the scheme and also, immediate investigation be carried out against allegations of corruption and misuse of the Scheme by individuals through the help of customs officials.
Many people we personally know have gained advantage of the scheme to import cars they forever dreamed of having. The scheme was however another saga of corruption in this corruption infested society however, ordinary people must have the right to import whatever they want for their personal use and measures to control the grey market shouldn’t desist ordinary citizens from importing cars from their personal use.
A tale of corruption or a sigh of relief to those who dreamed of owning a car but couldn’t due to 5-years-old import rule?! People should have the right to import any car they chose to have for their personal use and separate measures should be in place for controlling grey market.
