Pakistan will have to incur loss of Rs.50 billion

Initiated on the suo moto notice the Supreme Court of Pakistan heard the missing Nato container case on Monday in which it was informed by Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that 23,882 containers did not reach Afghanistan causing a loss of around Rs 50 billion in evasion and pilferage of duties.
During hearing of the case by three member bench of the supreme court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Chairman FBR Salman Siddiqi presented report about the Nato containers to the court.
Chairman FBR told the courts that doubt exists that whether some 23,882 Nato containers reached Afghanistan or not between 2008 and 2010 as these containers of commercial trade went missing and it incurred a loss of Rs50 billion to the county.
"Among these 23,882 missing Nato containers some were destined to Afghanistan from Chaman border while some were dispatched from Karachi to enter Afghanistan through Torkhum border," the report presented to the court said.
He said the reconciliation exercise for commercial containers is further being fine tuned and the number of missing containers may further increase by another 500 containers.
The Chairman FBR also informed the court that notices have been sent to shipping companies, agents and National Logistic Cell (NLC).
The court adjourned the hearing until tomorrow (Tu