KARACHI: The Appraising Intelligence Branch (AIB) of the Customs Collectorate Appraisement West has registered an FIR against the importer A-One Oriental and clearing agents Faiz Rehman, Hassan Ali Adam for their alleged involvement in tax evasion during clearance of the consignments.
The Appraising Intelligence Branch received information that the consignments were declared “fix-tape” and the importer, with the connivance of the clearing agents, tried to evade duty/taxes worth Rs 4.8million.
Sources informed Customs Today that the importer and clearing agents cleared four consignments during September through Goods Declaration KAPW-51892-17-09-2016; 48668-08-09-2016; 47602-07-09-2016 and 45950-05-09-2016 from Karachi International Containers Terminal (KICT).
The sources informed that the Customs Collectorate West constituted a two-member committee to investigate the matter. During the investigation, the committee found that the importer M/s Oriental and its clearing agents were involved in mis-declaration by misusing the SRO492(I)/2009. “Those two customs officers physically verified the imported consignments of the said importer and found that the company attempted to evade around Rs 4.8 million duty and taxes,” sources added.
Later, the AIB, while following the directives of the Collector Dr Farid Iqbal Qureshi, has registered an FIR against the importer and the clearing agents, stating that the action has been taken under Section 19, 32(A), 79, 192 punishable under clause 10(A), 14, 14A, 47,77 and 86 of Section 156(I) ibid read with Section 3(b) of the Sales Tax Act-1990 and punishable under Section-33 ibid and Section-148 of the Income Tax Ordinance-2001.
