On Friday, The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had issued a clarification on the excessive charging of customs duties and taxes on mobile phones. It stated that recently, a meeting with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had concluded that passengers can register up to five mobile phones on their passports.
In the case of high-end mobile phones of more than $500 each, the difference of duty/taxes between the passport and CNIC registration is about Rs. 9,000.
Therefore, in order to correct this anomaly and to limit the registration of a single mobile phone set against a passport, the WeBOC module was modified through the CRF (change request form).
However, during the process, the exemption of withholding tax was also deleted, and now the system shows the total taxes on a passport as Rs. 36,720.
The FBR has stated that the issue has been taken up with Director (R&A) Karachi and that 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, and all those who had paid more duty because of this glitch in the system will be refunded the excess amount
The FBR stated that it regrets the inconvenience caused to those who had to pay excess duty and taxes.
