KARACHI: The office of Chief Collector of Customs Appraisement South has advised all the Collectorates to verify the import indices of M/s AMI Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd filed in last 03 years with the shipping line to confirm the port of loading.
AMI Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd has been booked for committing a fraud by issuing of switch Bills of Lading in connivance with several importers, clearing agents and got cleared different goods by mis-declaring the vital information with regard to the shipper’s name, port of loading, country of origin to claim inadmissible FTA benefit and clearing banned products.
M/s AMI Pakistan filed 277 import indices with MCC Appraisement West, 1152 indices with MCC Appraisement East, 1129 indices with MCC Port Qasim and 60 with MCC Lahore.
Sources told Customews.pk that M/s AMI Pakistan, which is a company of Marine Group, in connivance with importers and clearing agents switched the Bill of Lading and mis-declared the port of loading as China instead of actual countries happened to be South Africa, UAE and Europe to claim inadmissible benefit of FTA with China.
Sources said a large quantity of steel coils and lubricants were imported into the country in this manner inflicting huge loss to the national economy.
At first MCC Appraisement West detected the scam. The investigations into the scam were conducted by a team formed by Collector Dr. Uwais Agha Jawwad and after rigorous effort the team Deputy Collector Ghulam Nabi Kamboh and Appraising Officers Shahid Ibrahim Dasti, Irshad Ahmed, Zulfiqar Zaman and Javed Khalid, unfolded various aspects of the case.
MCC Appraisement West has already lodged 18 FIRs and MCC Appraisement East lodged 13 FIRs nominating M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt Ltd, various importers and clearing agents.
An official told Customnews.pk that this would be one of the biggest scams in the history of Customs.