KARACHI: Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I&I Karachi) has unearthed over Rs1.5 billion/month worth of revenue evasion through import and clearance of undeclared, mis-declared and banned items I the garb of personal baggage consignments.
Information was passed through Director General Faiz Ahmed to Director I&I Karachi Saquif Saeed regarding organized smuggling in personal baggage consignments. Additional Director Ghulam Nabi Kamboh and his team increased vigilance and several suspected consignments were blocked after being assigned to Gate Out cleared through Red Channel from MCC Enforcement East.
The examination of the containers confirmed mis-declaration of description, quantity, HS Code and import of commercial quantity undeclared items and banned items. The accused include Farrukh Shahzad, Bilal Maqsood, Muhammad Bilal Akbar, Bilal Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed. Seizure Reports are served on them.
The fraudulent evasion of government revenue on each container is worked out to be Rs2.5 million on average.
An official said around 600 containers of personal baggage consignments are cleared each month.
Sources said these consignments had cleared through Red Channel, which suggests Enforcement Staff and the accused are on same page. It was further known that these baggage consignments are cleared against a fix amount of Rs0.45 million/container. Average evasion of Rs2.5 million on 600 containers comes to Rs1.5 billion per month.
Collector Enforcement Feroz Alam Junejo has formed a team under Additional Collector Tahir Abbas, which has already initiated probes into the case to identify the involvement of Customs staff across collectorate’s jurisdiction.