As many as 40 luxury cars, whose owners have not paid the custom duty according to the law or got their vehicles cleared under a false classification, have been seized in the city in 2008, a Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) official told Daily Times on Saturday.

FBR Deputy Director Intelligence and Investigation Saqif Saeed said that many cars, cleared from the Customs Department under a false classification, were being driven in the city.

He said the Custom Department officials seized a black Lincoln Limousine from a parking point at Liberty Market Gulberg on March 27, 2008. He said that the car owner, in connivance with a customs-clearing agent, had got the car cleared from the department under a false classification of a commercial vehicle. But the owner was using the car personally and it should have been cleared as a personal vehicle, he added. The FBR official said that the Customs Department had charged 20 percent duty on luxury vehicles used as commercial, and 90 percent on vehicles used as personal. The owner had paid Rs 981,760 under the classification of commercial vehicle for his limo, instead of Rs 2,644,487 for the vehicle as personal one, he added. The owner had been asked to pay the difference of Rs 1,662,727 but he had not responded, therefore the vehicle was seized, he added.

The owner of the car refused to comment.

The official said that the department had seized many such cars, which had been ‘illegally’ cleared as commercial from the Customs Department, but were being in personal use of their owners.

He said that people were also using those illegally imported cars partly for rent-a-car businesses. Those luxury cars brought Rs 15,000 and above to their owner for a day, he added. Such cars are hired for honeymoons and weddings.

Ahmed Sultan, the owner of the DHA Rental Service, said, “A number of DHA residents have left their cars with us, asking for a fixed amount of rent.”

Hammad Nasser, a driver, said that the demand for big luxury cars had increased, as people took pride in using those vehicles on their functions. He said that the drivers needed to have complete documents of such cars, including custom clearance, to avoid any confrontation with the traffic police.

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