KARACHI: MCC Appraisement East has submitted the final challan before the Court in the case of fraudulent clearance of restricted goods, betel nut, in the garb of mixed used clothing for processing at Karachi Export Promotion Zone (KEPZ).
[the_ad id=”32940″]Investigation Officer Ashfar-ur-Rehman has nominated Muhammad Yousaf of M/s Yousuf & Co (absconding), M/s Hands Industries, Muhammad Akif, Fahad Ali, Hamal Baloch, Muhammad Salman Haris, Mushtaq Hussain Laghari and Shahrukh Ali Bhayo as accused in the case.
R&D Appraisement East Principal Appraiser comprising Principal Appraiser Dost Muhammad, SPO Malak Hashim, Adil Rasheed detected the case. An official said it was a huge case, but due to jurisdictional limitations, it was not completely and properly investigated.
According to the details of the case, information was received In R&D Section that M/s Hands Industries Pvt Ltd filed a GD destined for KEPZ whereby they have imported a consignment of Betel Nuts by misdeclaring the same as mixed used clothes from UAE.
In pursuance of the received information, joint examination of the consignment through R&D’s Team was created in WeBOC system. Examination conducted by the R&D and Customs Staff at PICT revealed that impugned consignment actually consists of Betel Nuts. After thorough examination of the impugned goods and drawl of representative samples, the goods were re-stuffed and re-sealed with fresh Custom’s seal. Proper Musheernama was also prepared on the spot and duly signed by the concerned witnesses of the whole process. The found goods Betel Not is a restricted item in terms of Import Policy Order. However, in order to avoid requirements of the Import Policy Order, the importers have imported betel nuts under the garb of Mixed Used Clothes purportedly for processing at Karachi Exports Processing Zone (KEPZ) by mis-declaring the same. The importers by importing betel nuts in the guise of Mixed Used Clothes attempted to evade huge amount of duties and taxes besides serious violation of the mandatory provisions of law and procedure.
The information further revealed that the importers and their associates were trying to get the actually imported goods illegally replaced with the ones falsely declared in the relevant GD to camouflage the concerned Customs functionaries.
Despite jurisdictional constraints, R&D MCC Appraisement East established that the group of accused persons and their associates deliberately mis-declared description of the imported goods and attempted to get clearance of the restricted item through gross mis-declartion for further replacement of the same with other ones en route to KEPZ.
Sources told Customnews.pk that the said cartel was involved in this dirty business since long and had caused a loss to the tune of billions to the national exchequer. R&D Appraisement East has submitted challan pertaining to just one GD, on which a sum of Rs6.5 million was evaded.
Sources added that the said cartel had their own trailers and containers, which were being fraudulently used to replace the imported goods, with those falsely declared in the GD. It may be mentioned here that MCC Preventive has lodged an FIR against the same group of people in a similar case.