KARACHI: MCC Appraisement East has submitted the final challan against several accused including Mohammad Ali Chandna before Customs Court in the case wherein the accused imported banned pharmaceutical raw materials under vague descriptions to circumvent the provisions of Import Policy and evade duty/taxes.
An information was received in the R&D Section to the affect that certain unscrupulous importers were engaged in importing Pharmaceutical raw materials with the vague description from China / India by mis-declaring description and classification and value with an intent to circumvent the application of Import Policy Order applicable to the pharmaceutical raw material.
In order to un-earth the heinous crime by these unscrupulous elements, a broad based exercise / inquiry 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 analyses which were found to be pharmaceutical raw material, contrary to the declaration of importer as chemicals.
Consequently based on these results of chemical analysis FIR was accordingly lodged against Importer namely Muhammad All Chandna of M/s Pure Enterprises and his Clearing Agent Muhammad All Ravjani of M/s. Rajab Ali & Sons.
Scrutiny of the data indicated that M/s. Cemi Zone cleared 10 consignments so far while declaring fake brand of Preservative ACJC-240 & 430 and SDO-222 as against pharmaceutical raw material. Moreover, the value was grossly under-stated to evade the legitimate government revenue.
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 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 surrendered 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 Muhammad Ali Chandna of M/s. Pure Enterprises has made deliberate attempt to import banned pharmaceutical raw material under the guise of SDO/ACJC Preservative and thereby caused huge revenue losses to the tune of Rs122.23million beside importing the banned material.
It has been known that Mohammad Ali Chandna made the imports in the name of M/s Cemi Zone and marketed the goods to local pharmaceutical sector.
Investigation into the matter from the clearing agency further revealed that import documents like invoice, packing list bill of lading or delivery order were provided by the accused importer Muhammad Ali Chandna and after clearance the goods were delivered to him accordingly, According to set practice of the clearing agency initial payment of duty, taxes, port charges and other expenses were made by them which were charged to the importer through clearing agency’s bills.
Mohammad Ali Chandna disappeared on lodging of FIR but joined investigations later and denied all allegations.
Investigations carried out so far reflected accused Abdullah Haroon and Manzoor hussain as front men of Chndna who not only paid bills of the clearing agency through their bank accounts but were also taking delivery of the imported consignments.
Investigation to ascertain the role of staff was also carried out which transpired that assessing staff working in computerized environment having no physical access to trader has been provided two tools i.e either the assessor can call documents or literature etc through electronic message required reply through scan documents or to call physical examination of the goods at port including test at Custom House Lab in case of chemicals. This system is mainly based to facilitate the trade relying upon the profile of the importers to conduct minimum physical examinations in order to ensure speedy clearances as per policy of the government.
The record of this importer shows import of total 10 consignments of repetitive description/brand out of which 8 were examined and samples were forwarded to the Lab invariably in first 5 consignments imported. Since the test reports endorsed were not showing any adverse remarks or reservation as regard to description or classification etc, therefore, the assessing staff performed his duties in line with the policy exercising available tools and assessed the goods on 90 days data available to them on merit. However test reports being vital technical tool to determine correct description and classification endorsed by Lab staff were subsequently found incorrect on the basis of documents received from the shipping companies, showing actual description of antibiotic pharmaceutical raw materials.
The role of Customs laboratory is also questionable as the Laboratory issued test reports within five minutes of the submitting of samples. An employee of the Customs laboratory is also arrested.
The buyers of the goods imported by Chandna and his associates include M/s All Baba Chemicals, Lahore; M/s Attabak Pharmaceutical Industries, Islamahad; M/s Batala Pharmaceuticals, Gujranwala; M/s Delta Pharma, Naushehra; M/s Etema International; Islamabad; M/s Farmaceutics International, Karachi; M/s Fedro Pharmaceutical Lab (Pvt) Ltd; Peshawar; M/s Gillman Phanna, Islamabad; M/s Glitz Pharma, Islamabad; M/s Hassan Pharmaceutical, Peshawar; M/s ICI Pakistan, Karachi; M/s Inshal Pharmaceutical Industry, Islamabad; M/s Linear Pharma, Islamabad; M/s Paramount Pharmaceutical, Islamahad; 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 WimitsPharmacuticals, Lahore; M/s Revlon Corporation, Lahore; M/s Sunchem Corporation, Lahore.
Ashfaq-ur-Rehman in the final report submitted that on the basis of investigation and evidence collected, it is clear that Mohammad Ali Chandna of M/s Pure Enterprises, Mohammad Hussain Rajvani of M/s Rajab Ali & sons, Ziauddin of M/s Cemi Zone, Abdullah Haroon, Manzoor Hussain, Umer Farooq of M/s Convell Laboratories and lab officers have committed the crime.