KARACHI: Customs Intelligence and Investigation Karachi has exposed a major smuggling racket involving the import of solar panels at grossly undervalued prices and the illegal transfer of foreign exchange through money laundering.
I&I has registered a case against Muhammad Zafar of M/s Mirza Collection and Customs agent Mansoor Ahmed of M/s MAK Enterprises for electronically filing false and forged documents and misusing the Electronic Import Form (EIF) to evade customs duty and taxes.
Director General of Customs Intelligence and Investigation, Faiz Ahmed, had directed the Director of I&I Karachi, Engr. Habib, to form a team to investigate the suspected cases of under-invoicing and mis-declaration of solar panels imported from China. The team, comprising Additional Director Afzal Wattoo and Assistant Director Saud Hasan, detected two consignments of solar panels that were declared at significantly lower values than those at which they were sold for export to Pakistan.
The team found that M/s Mirza Collection and their clearing agent M/s. MAK Enterprises had declared the CFR value of 1240 Solar Panels of 540 Watts each at $2,108 and 1594 Solar Panels of 400 Watts each at $2,391, with their unit of measurement declared in pieces instead of watts. This was done to deliberately avoid the valuation criteria of $0.20/Watt in terms of the Valuation Ruling No. 1653/2022, which was accordingly applied by the customs authorities and the consignments were assessed at the values of $133,920 and $127,420, respectively.
The team also found that the accused had repeatedly used seven EIFs in their 144 GDs of solar panels, which is a clear violation of the EIF regulations. The EIF is a mandatory document for all imports above $5,000 and is meant to ensure that the foreign exchange remitted for imports matches the value declared to the customs.
I&I Karachi lodged an FIR against the accused for committing fiscal fraud under various sections of the Customs Act, 1969 and for money laundering under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
Directorate has also seized the consignments and initiated further investigations to unearth the network of smugglers and money launderers involved in this racket.