DOHA: A Doha Criminal Court has ordered a local commercial company to pay a fine of QR1mn after being convicted of smuggling a large quantity of tobacco and cigarettes, local Arabic daily Arrayah reported on Wednesday.
The company tried to hide the tobacco and cigarettes inside a number of other commercial items to pass through the customs unnoticed.
Besides, it had manipulated the original source of the tobacco on purpose to evade customs duty.
Accordingly, it submitted incorrect information about the cargo, which was brought from a neighbouring GCC country.
However, the customs officers were able to discover such manipulation and verified that the cargo documents included misleading data.
The issue was referred to the public prosecution to take the necessary legal procedures and the court convicted the company of submitting incorrect data about the cargo to evade customs duty, the daily added.
