ISLAMABAD – On Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on InformationTechnology and Telecommunication was told by the Federal Board of Revenuethat it is planning to allow duty-free mobile phone imports under theBaggage Rule.
Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman FBR told the committee that they will put thisrecommendation in front of the federal cabinet in the coming days. FBR toldthat the baggage rule is being misused and because of that governmentsimposed taxes instead of giving facilities of mobile phone import.
Under the baggage rule, the mafia used the stolen data of internationalarriving passengers and then registered the phones on their name. FBR toldthat the facility was misused by registering expensive phones oninternational passenger’s information.
Chairman Standing Committee on Information Technology andTelecommunication, Rubina Khalid criticized FBR for not blocking theloopholes in the rules and looting people through taxes. Such duties andtaxes are not only disturbing local citizens but especially it is pain inthe neck for overseas Pakistanis.
Not only the opposition but Government benches and ministry of IT (MOIIT),condemned the revenue board’s actions and asked it to revise all theirtaxes. MOIIT asked the senate committee to approve the FBR suggestion ofduty-free mobile phone imports.
Read Top Stories
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told the participant of thismeeting that more than 6 lac mobile phones were imported under the baggagerule which was also expensive. PTA official said they were informed thatthe facility is being misused. the taxes collected from the imports ofmobile phones were PKR 29.9 billion in 2018-19 and PKR 15.1 billion in thefirst four months of this fiscal year.
At the end of the meeting, the committee approved the relief on the importof mobile phones. The meeting concluded by finalizing the decision to allowpeople to import one phone in their baggage.
