KARACHI: MCC Appraisement West has lodged an FIR against Syed Muhammad Imran of M/s Shahyan Brothers Trading Company for mis-declaring the description of imported goods with an intention to evade government revenue of Rs10.95 million.
Information was received through Collector Wajid Ali that fabrics of assorted type have been imported in the garb of textile pieces. The consignment was imported by M/s Shahyan Brothers Trading from South Korea and was off loaded at KICT.
The consignment was kept under vigilance. Since GD was not filed and container was not moved to AICT off-dock terminal, the examination was conducted and found polyester pile furnishing fabric of assorted colors in rolls, Organza tissue fabric in rolls, Chiffon fabric of assorted colors in rolls, textile lining fabric in rolls and PU coated fabric of assorted colors valuing Rs17.51 million as against the manifest and BL information of textile cut pieces.
The goods have been seized and a notice was served upon the custodian M/s KICT. Preliminary inquiry into the matter found that importers have tried to get clearance of the above mentioned goods through mis-declaration as textile pieces (cut sizes) and violated the mandatory provisions of law and procedure.
An FIR has been lodged and investigations are underway. Meanwhile, on the directives of Collector Wajid Ali, Additional Collector Amir Theim has formed a team comprising Assistant collector Ahmed Rizwan, Principal Appraiser Shafiullah, Appraising Officer Ghani Soomro. The team has started scrutiny of other consignments of textile pieces imported by other companies.
Three more companies M/s A.M. Traders, M/s Seapearl Traders, M/s Mengal Traders are also being investigated.
MCC Appraisement West has been quite efficient in plugging the revenue leakage and recently detected fraudulent removal of seized containers.
MCC Appraisement West also dected import and clearance of new crockery mixed with used crockery. However, after the scam was detected, 14 containers were shifted to EPZ.
The information has been passed to Collector Exports Saifuddin Junejo, and subsequently Deputy Collectoir Rana Aftab Principal Appraiser Shahid Dasti have started examination of these used crockery consignments. An official said examination at EPZ was quite difficult due to shortage of space.
It may be mentioned here that containers that leave EPZ in the name of exports are replaced during transit. This scheme is out of the ambit of Customs.