KARACHI: The MCC Appraisement East has submitted the final Challan before the Court of Special Judge (Customs Taxation & Anti-Smuggling), Karachi in the case of fraudulent import of pharmaceutical chemicals.
The accused include Mohammad Ali Chandna of M/s Pure Enterprises (on-bail) and absconders include Ziauddin of M/s Cemi Zone, Mohammad Husain Rajvani of M/s Rajabali & Sons, Manzoor Hussain and Abdullah Haroon.
According to details, R&D Section had information that certain unscrupulous importers were engaged in importing pharmaceutical raw materials with the vague description of “SDO” & “Preservative ACJC” from China and India by mis-declaring description/classification and value with intent to circumvent the application of Import Policy Order, which bans import of certain pharmaceutical raw material.
Subsequently, a broad based exercise was undertaken and relevant record of these imports was retrieved from the database of the Collectorate. Moreover, couples of consignment of identical goods lying at port were also intercepted and were subjected to chemical analysis, which were found to be pharmaceutical raw material, contrary to the declaration of importer as chemicals.
Consequently an FIR was accordingly lodged against importer namely Muhammad Ali Chandna of M/s. Pure Enterprises and his Clearing Agent Muhammad Ali Ravjani of M/s. Rajab Ali & Sons.
Scrutiny of the data indicated that M/s. Cemi Zone Karachi has cleared 10 consignments so far while declaring fake brand of Preservative ACJC-240 & 430 and SDO-222 as against pharmaceutical raw material.
The shipping companies who had provided logistic for en-route to Karachi port of the impugned consignments were requested to provide documents including declaration at the time of shipment. The documents received so far have indicated gross mis-declaration of description, classification and value.
The documents furnished by the shipping companies have further reflected that actual description of the goods was quite contrary to the declaration as elaborated above. Moreover, the value was also grossly under stated at $0.35 – 0.45/Kg as against $9 to $143/Kg indicated in the documents provided by the shipping companies.
The attempted mis-declaration of description / value was aimed at to evade the legitimate taxes and escape from the restriction / prohibitions enshrined in Import Policy Order in vogue, besides escaping from the higher tariff rate of CD 15 percent to 25 percent as against claimed 10 percent.
It is relevant to add that during the course of inquiry and examination of documents on record, it transpired that the amount of taxes relating to clearance of all the afore-referred 10 consignments were arranged/paid by accused Muhammad Ali Chandna of M/s. Pure Enterprises, Karachi and this firm M/s.Pure Enterprises is also notified as buyer in two shipping bills.
The modus operandi for this organized crime was that importer used to surrender the original bill of lading at the port of shipment and delivery orders were managed via e-mail instruction from the principal with the instruction that original bill of lading has been surrender and delivery may be given without presentation of the same.
It is evident that M/s Cemi Zone Karachi with active connivance of master mind Mohammad Ali Chandna of M/s Pure Enterprises fraudulently imported restricted and banned pharmaceutical raw material causing huge loss to the exchequer.
The accused have been supplying the fraudulently imported raw material to various pharmaceutical companies including M/S ICI Pakistan, M/s Ali Baba Chemicals, Lahore, M/s Attabak Pharmaceutical Industries, Islamabad, M/s Batala Pharmaceuticals, Gujranwala, M/s Delta Pharma, Naushehra, M/s Eterna International, Islamabad, M/s Farmaceutics International, Karachi, M/s Fedro Pharmaceutical Lab (Pvt) Ltd, Peshawar, M/s Gillman Pharma, Islamabad, M/s Glitz Pharma, Islamabad, M/s Hassan Pharmaceutical, Peshawar, M/s Inshal Pharmaceutical Industry, Islamabad, M/s Linear Pharma, Islamabad, M/s Paramount Pharmaceutical, Islamabad, M/s Pharma Wise Lab, Lahore, M/s Reliance Pharma, Islamabad, M/s Shaheen Pharmaceuticals, Swat, M/s Shifa Laboratories (Pvt) Ltd, Rawalpindi, M/s Standpharm Pakistan, Lahore, M/s Swat Pharmaceuticals, Swat, M/s Wimits Pharmacuticals, Lahore, M/s Revlon Corporation, Lahore and M/s Sunchem Corporation, Lahore.