KARACHI: Chief Collector Appraisement South Abdul Rasheed Sheikh has alerted all the collectorates and dry ports as Pakistan Customs is tightening the noose around a particular cartel of toy importers, who have been inflicting huge revenue loss on to the national exchequer through evading government revenue through mis-declaration of description of the imported goods.
Customs has detected a mega scam of toy imports as the importers grossly mis-declared the goods in terms of description and PCT knowingly with the intention to evade legitimate amount of duty and taxes and have violated mandatory provisions of law.
MCC Port Qasim has detected certain other WeBOC IDs which said cartel of toy importers have been using to import toys on suppressed values and evading government revenue. According to details three Goods Declarations (GDs) filed by M/s Hammad Toys, M/s Toy Center and M/s Zaheer Toys were detected and blocked on the instructions of Collector Port Qasim Chaudry Javed, the same were then scanned under the supervision of Additional Collector Yaseen Murtaza and released.
The above mentioned consignments were destined for dry port Lahore through transshipment permit (TP). Meanwhile, MCC Port Qasim has written to destined dry port recommendation proper examination and assessment of the consignment.
It is suspected that these consignments were imported by the same cartel that has been using M/s Xing Enterprises and M/s One Ten World to evade government revenue. An investigation has also been initiated to identify the WeBOC IDs the said cartel has acquired to use for their dirty business.
So far 33 containers of toys have been found to have committed misdeclaration with an objective to evade government revenue.
Sources said these importers were backed by some political influential and pressure was being exerted on the authorities for leniency. However, Chief Collector Abdul Rasheed Sheikh has taken a stand and a thorough scrutiny/investigation is underway in this regard.
Earlier, a committee of MCC Appraisement East identified one Imran Ali aka Molvi is the front man of this cartel who have been importing toys evading government revenue.
Sources said these importers have been involved in blackmailing and pressurizing the officers/officials through the use of a weekly magazine and a third-rated news channel. They attempted to blackmail Additional Collector Yaseen Murtaza, Deputy Collector Athar Naveed, Principal Appraisers Shahid Rizvi, Khalid Umar, Dost Mohammad, Appraising Officer Rana Insaram Rabbani and several others.
An official said there were around five different magazines and newspapers which were distributed at Customs House Karachi free of cost and the only purpose of these magazines was to pressurize and blackmail the Customs staff. These magazines plunge to such low levels that they even resort to character assassination of the officers. An official said free distribution of all such magazines and newspapers should be banned forthwith.