Duty-Free Vehicle Permits for MPs 🚗

⭕️116 MPs have requested the government to issue duty-free vehicle permits, proposal is reportadly now on president's desk if approved which would make them eligible for tax exemptions in millions on imported vehicles.

⭕️Top public servants, military personnel, and university professors also receive these permits, their tax exempt allotment is capped at 3.6 million. However, for MPs there is no upper limit.

⭕️These permits are transferable, allowing MPs to sell them to the highest bidder or import vehicles themselves and sell them at market price unused earning millions in profits.

⭕️In 2010, nearly one-third of the Parliament (65 MPs) sold their duty-free permits to businessmen for Rs. 12 million to Rs. 17 million each. - Sunday times

⭕️ Some have imported, vehicles and sold them at the market price, A high-end Toyota Prado, purchased for Rs. 7 million with the duty-free permit, could have being sold for Rs. 30 million in the market at the time.

⭕️ In 2016, the practice repeated. At least 75 MPs imported luxury vehicles, including BMWs, Land Cruisers, Mercedes-Benz, and even Hummers, under the duty-free permit scheme. For each vehicle, the tax exemption alone cost taxpayers a staggering amount ranging from Rs. 30 million to an - Rs. 44.7 million.

⭕️In 2020, media reports surfaced alleging that MPs had accepted cash advances from prominent businessmen, promising to sell their duty-free vehicle permits even before receiving them. However, the newly elected Parliament that year did not receive these permits due to the prevailing economic crisis and the temporary ban on vehicle imports to safeguard foreign exchange reserves. It is likely those MPs who have now completed five years in office are spearheading the current push for the these duty-free vehicle permits.

List of MPs who imported vehicles in 2016 using the duty free permits. 👇