KARACHI: MCC Appraisement West has recovered an amount of Rs63.113 million, which an importer evaded through suppressing actual value of imported consignments.
According to details, Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement West found that importer namely M/s Fazal Elahi & Sons-Lahore is suppressing actual value of imported consignments in order to evade legitimate government revenue.
M/s Fazal Elahi & Sons-Lahore opened letter of credit (LC) and remitted the amount but at the time of declaration, they did not declared the number of LCs and the amount thereof on the GD to avoid higher value/taxes.
On confrontation, the importer admitted that they had cleared a number of consignments on lower value than the actual value transected through LCs. Imported admitted 29 such consignments cleared through MCC Appraisement West, 20 cleared through MCC Appraisement East and 8 consignments on suppressed values were cleared through MCC Port Qasim.
The Customs calculated an amount of Rs70 million as evaded, which the Customs has recovered from the importer.
On a query sent by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Collector Appraisement West Agha Jawad advised Additional Collector Nayyar Shafique to deliberate on the issue. As Nayyar Shafique was transferred, Additional Collector Irfan Wahid and PA Abdul Qayyum detected the scam leading to recovery.
The case has been forwarded to Deputy Collector R&D Ghulam Nabi Kamboh for further action.
An official said that SBP should advise all banks to inform Customs whenever such an anomaly was observed in the LC and GD. It may be mentioned here that a copy of GD is required while closing the LC. If the bank finds a copy of GD on which it is mentioned it was without LC, banks should inform SBP vis-à-vis Pakistan Customs.
Moreover, the Valuations Rulings should be issued regularly and updated so that under-valuation could be avoided.