KARACHI: R&D of MCC Appraisement West has foiled a bid to clear high value and restricted items in the garb of used auto parts.
Information was received through Collector Wajid Ali that some unscrupulous elements are involved in imports of restricted and high value items into the country in the garb of Used Auto Parts.
The R&D Section started monitoring of consignments of used auto parts. A consignment was shipped from UAE and was off loaded at KICT. The container comprised of one FCL consignment imported by M/s Hamdan Trading and was destined to Islamabad Dry Port for clearance.
The consignment was kept under vigilance. Since neither any Goods Declaration was filed nor the container was moved to Dry Port, therefore, examination was conducted by PA Shafiullah and AO Ghani Soomro.
The examination found the gods to be 13 units of old and used Suzuki Pickup in dismantled conditions of models from year 1991 to 1998; EDU Toilet Perfume and Body Spray of various brand and origin, weighing 2168.66 kgs approx; 66 old and used engines of different cylinders with and without gear and Used auto parts comprising self starter, alternator, shock absorbers and arms. The ascertained value and taxes of the above goods is Rs18.53 million and Rs22.51 million respectively.
According to the manifest, the consignment comprised of used auto parts. The consignment was shipped from UAE and shipper is the same party that has already been involved in a similar scam, which was detected and one Malik Abid was arrested in this regard.
The presence of goods not importable / banned under the Law of land in such a huge quantity creates question on the intention of the people involved in the import. Subsequently, en-route replacement / pilferage of consignments is a known phenomenon and there are a number of prosecution cases filed regarding en-route replacement / pilferage of Transshipment goods.
Considering the nature of the goods found in the consignment, it is evident that the presence of banned, high value and restricted items leads to a strong indication of mensrea on part of the persons involved in importing the goods. So, there is a strong reason to believe that the intentions of the people involved were to replace the goods en-route to its destination i.e. Islamabad.
An FIR is likely to be lodged shortly.
An official said it is a very safe crime because when such consignments are detected and caught, the importers with the help to their connections in the top hierarchy of FBR and judiciary get these consignments re-exported claiming the shipper mistakenly delivered wrong goods.