The Federal Board of Revenue has denied issuing a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) for the duty-free import of bulletproof vehicles, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The FBR in its tweet posted on Saturday stated: :FBR categorically denies reports appearing in some sections of media that it has issued an SRO allowing taxes and duty free import of bullet proof vehicles. The Federal Cabinet had allowed such facility in 2019 but no notification to this effect has been issued so far.”

https://twitter.com/FBRSpokesperson/status/1573589657304055811?cxt=HHwWhoCynZjdwdYrAAAA

The denial came after a fake news appeared in a section of press today giving impression that the retired services chiefs and retired lieutenant generals are allowed to import tax free 6000 cc vehicles under a policy approved by federal cabinet but is subject to approval by the prime minister. The news seems to be an attempt to defame military.

According to the news, the FBR delayed releasing the notification after growing criticism on social media. But the FBR has rubbished the news saying that it has not issued any SRO allowing tax free vehicles. 

It is pertinent to mention here that when terrorism was at its peak in the country and terrorists were targeting everyone particularly Army and Army leadership and senior officers like Lieutenant General Mushtaq Shaheed and families of senior Army officials as they were easy to identify, so in in 2015, use of bullet proof vehicles for Service Chiefs and those three-star officers who had remained directly involved in operations against terrorists such as Corps Commander Peshawar, etc. was considered. The import of 6000 cc bullet proof vehicles was allowed because these vehicles are very heavy and need much more power than average. 

However, not a single retired individual has imported such a vehicle to date as per record. Once again the news was used to defame and target military leadership.