The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has ordered the transfer of 31 luxury cars imported from abroad by the defunct 12th National Parliament members (MPs) to the Government Vehicles Department under the Ministry of Public Administration. The agency said that a special order has been issued today, Wednesday, giving instructions for this.
In a notification, the NBR said that the Chittagong Customs House has sought instructions to know whether the duty-free facility will be applicable to the cars imported under special duty-free facility of some members of the defunct 12th National Parliament. In response, the NBR instructed the Chittagong Customs House on December 8 last year that the duty-free facility will not be applicable to the release of the cars and the importers will be able to release the cars by paying the normal rate of duty and tax.
The total duty and tax payable on the 31 cars imported under duty-free facility is Tk 269 crore 61 lakh 89 thousand 600. The maximum amount of customs duty payable per unit of these high-value vehicles is 9 crore 44 lakh 83 thousand 300 taka and the minimum amount of customs duty payable per unit is 8 crore 62 lakh 67 thousand 400 taka.
As per the instructions of the National Board of Revenue, the importers of those 31 vehicles did not release them after paying all the customs duty. Therefore, the vehicles were auctioned as per Section 94(3) of the Customs Act, 2023. Since no bidder bid the reasonable price of the vehicles in that auction, the vehicles were not sold at the auction. Later, a decision was taken in this regard in an inter-ministerial meeting regarding appropriate use in the public interest. In view of this, this special order has been issued to transfer the very valuable vehicles to the Ministry of Public Administration.
If the importer of the concerned vehicle wishes to release the vehicles legally by paying all applicable duties and taxes in the future, the Chittagong Customs House will be able to release them in favor of the importer by properly complying with the laws, rules and orders related to determining the dutiable value and customs.
If the Chittagong Customs House takes measures to release the vehicles in favor of the importer in the future after collecting the applicable duties and taxes, the vehicles will be returned to the Customs Authority by the Department of Government Vehicles.
