KARACHI: The R&D section of MCC Appraisement East has arrested one Mohammad Ali Chandna. He was the main person involved in the fraudulent import of banned chemicals and was wanted in import of several consignments of banned chemicals involving over Rs1.0 billion of duty evasion.

MCC Appraisement West had lodged two FIRs while MCC Appraisement East had lodged one FIR against M/s. Pure Enterprises and their clearing Agent M/s. Rajab Ali & Sons for attempting to fraudulently clear banned goods.

Intelligence sources said that Chandna was the mastermind behind the scam and had caused huge loss to the economy. He is importer as well as indenter of the subject goods and imported cargo in different company names.

The R&D conducted a thorough rekey and then made the raid to avoid any chance of the culprit’s escape. The R&D team included Appraising Officer Azhar Abbas, Preventive Officer Malak Hashim, Adil Rasheed and Sepoy Samar.

M/s. Pure Enterprises imported pharmaceutical raw material Cefixime Trihydrate and sought clearance declaring the goods classifiable under PCT 3824.9099.

The samples were sent to HEJ Laboratory, University of Karachi for analytical test, which reported that the consignment actually consist of cefixime antibiotic. Cefixime is not permitted to be imported from China as per the provisions of Import Policy Order 2013.

It may be mentioned here that M/s. Cemi Zone imported pharmaceutical raw material Cefixime from India in September 2014 through their clearing agent M/s. Rajab Ali & Sons i.e. the same importer and agent have been involved in this fraud since long causing huge loss to the exchequer.

They have been importing pharmaceutical goods including SDO 444, 555 & 777 and mis-declaring their assessable values at $0.5/kg instead of actual value of Cefixime $190/kg, Paracetamol $3/kg and Ciproxin $25/kg.

Two more members of this ring i.e. owners of M/s Cemi Zone and M/s Rajab Ali & Sons are still at large and according to reports have fled abroad.

Collector Appraisement West, Mohammad Saleem has reportedly approached International Police (Interpol) to their arrest.

R&D Appraisement West detected in September 2014 that a chemical named Cefixime Trihydrate was being imported and being cleared through mis-declaration of classification. In the same month R&D Appraisement East focused on this case and pointed out 83 cases.

This is a high profile case involving sum to the tune of over Rs1.0 billion. Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa and Member Customs Nisar Mohammad Khan are taking personal interest in this case. Tariq Bajwa had tasked Collector MCC Appraisement –East Manzoor Memon to take prompt action and arrest the culprits in a recent meeting in Karachi.

According to details, Principal Appraiser at R&D MCC Appraisement East, Shafiullah discovered the crime and after conducting thorough investigations gave briefing to Chief Collector Appraisement South Nasir Masroor about the import of banned chemicals into the country. Following which, action was taken and FIRs were lodged against the culprits.