KARACHI: In a significant crackdown on smuggling and revenue evasion, the Collectorate of Customs (Appraisement-West) has registered a criminal case against a city-based automotive company for the alleged illegal removal of components for luxury SUVs from a bonded warehouse without paying duties and taxes amounting to approximately Rs. 90 million.
The First Information Report (FIR No. 14/2025) was lodged on Monday at the Court of the Special Judge (Customs, Taxation & Anti-Smuggling) against M/s Al Haj Automotive (Pvt.) Ltd. and its directors.
According to the FIR, the company had imported 120 sets of “second partial components” for the assembly of PROTON X70 Premium 2WD AT 1477CC vehicles in a Completely Knocked Down (CKD) condition from Malaysia in October 2022. The consignment was legally filed under an Into-Bond goods declaration and stored in the company’s private bonded warehouse (Bond No. 02/2022) in Malir, deferring the payment of duties and taxes.
The scandal came to light after Chief Collector Enforcement, Basit Abbasi, passed credible intelligence to Collector Moinuddin Wani of Customs Appraisement-West, indicating that a portion of the warehoused goods had been illegally removed.
Acting swiftly, Collector Moinuddin Wani tasked Additional Collector Yasir Kalwar with forming a special team to investigate. The team, led by Assistant Collector Tauseef Shaikh and comprising Appraising Officers Khawar Hashmi, Khizer Khurshid, Inam ul Haq Safdar, Amrat Lal, and Faiz Ahmed, conducted a surprise joint stocktaking operation at the company’s warehouse on November 10, 2025.
The physical verification, carried out in the presence of the company’s representatives, revealed a massive shortfall. While the records showed that 79 sets had been legally cleared (ex-bonded), a balance of 41 sets should have been present in the warehouse. Shockingly, not a single set of the 41 was found.
This confirmed that 41 complete CKD kits for the luxury SUVs, with an ascertained value of over Rs. 88 million, had been illegally removed from the bonded premises. The evaded amount of duty and taxes is estimated to be a staggering Rs. 89,769,620.
The FIR states that the directors of M/s Al Haj Automotive, identified as Hilal Khan Afridi and Bilal Khan Afridi, along with other unnamed accomplices, “willfully and deliberately concealed and illegally removed the goods… with the intent to evade legitimate government revenue.”
The company and its officials have been charged with multiple serious offences under the Customs Act, 1969, including violations of Section 83(1) for removing goods without a customs declaration and Section 104 for removing goods from a warehouse without payment of duty. Charges under the Sales Tax Act, 1990, and the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, have also been invoked.
Sources within the Customs department indicate that this case may be just the tip of the iceberg. With heightened scrutiny on bonded warehouses, more FIRs at Customs Appraisement and Port Qasim are expected to be lodged soon as the crackdown intensifies against what officials describe as a sophisticated network involved in revenue evasion.