KARACHI: The Appraising Intelligence Branch (AIB), while following the directives of Appraisement-West Collector Muhammad Saleem, has once again started to scrutinising the import data of banned antibiotic ‘Cefixime’ from India, which is not importable under the Import Policy Order, 2013.
Sources informed Customs Today that the AIB has scrutinised nine goods declaration in which the banned antibiotic was being imported.
They further revealed that the process of scrutinising of the clearance data was underway and further legal proceedings would be initiated against the accused in the upcoming days with the consent of the Appraisement-West collector.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Appraising Intelligence Branch of the Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Appraisement-West registered an FIR against accused Ziauddin of Cemi Zone and clearing agent Muhammad Hussain Rajwani of Rajab Ali & Sons for their deliberate and willful involvement in clearance of the consignment of ‘Cefixime’ from India in November 2014.
In the FIR, the authorities concerned were of the view that some unscrupulous importers were involved in clearance of certain items from India which were otherwise not importable in terms of Appendix-G of the Import Policy Order, 2013 in vogue.
The AIB officials concerned in the registered FIR stated that the importer Cemi Zone violated the provision of Section 16 and was guilty of the offence as defined under Sections 32, 32A and 192 of the Customs Act, 1969, punishable under Clauses 9, 14, 14A, 86 and 90 of the Section 156 ibid, read with Section 1 of Section3 of the Import and Export (Control) Act.
The sources further told Customs Today that more FIRs would be lodged in this regard in the upcoming days, as the AIB officials are active to unveil the unscrupulous elements who are involved in clearance of banned antibiotics from India.
The sources further revealed that the authorities concerned of the R&D Section of Appraisement-East were also working on same lines and had detected around 50 cases in which they found that the unscrupulous elements were involved in importing banned antibiotic ‘Cefixime’ from India.
