KARACHI: Additional Collector Customs Adjudication-II Samiul Haq has issued Order-in-Original against the renowned multinational company Halliburton Worldwide Limited (DHL Global Forwarding) against its alleged involvement in massive miss-declaration in terms of value, description and weight of the imported consignments, Oil Well Chemical (Chem Latex-3000).
According to details, the importer electronically filed the goods declaration KAPE-HC-51813-11-11-2014 for the import of Oil Well Chemical for Oil Well Project from USA against IGM No488. The importer in the Goods Declaration declared unit value of Chem Latex-3000 as $0.0640 per Kg with total invoice value of $1026 under PCT Heading 4002.1100 at one per cent Custom Duty.
The GD was selected for scrutiny in terms of Section 80 of Customs Act, 1969, when the authorities checked the actuality of cleared consignment it was revealed that the imported consignment consisted of synthetic co-polymer (styrene co-polymer) instead of Chem Latex-3000.
The MCC Appraisement-East in its contravention report against the importer stated that the importer has deliberately and willfully miss-declared the value, weight and classification of the consignment to cheat tax collecting authorities. Thus, Halliburton Worldwide Limited violated the Sections 32(1), 32(2), 32(A) and 79(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 and Section 33 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance-2001 and punishable under Clause 14, 14 A and 45 of the Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969; Clause 11(C) of the Section 33 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
In the final judgment made by the Additional Collector Customs Adjudication-II it was stated that the charges leveled against the importer in Contravention Report stand established. The Additional Collector further ordered to confiscate the offending goods under Clause (14) and (14A) of the Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 for violation of the provision of Sections 32(1), (2), 32(A) and 79(1) ibid. However, an option has given to the importer to redeem the offending goods under Section 181 of Customs Act, 1969 on payment of fine equal to 35 percent of the value of the goods which is amounting to Rs 1970800.
A penalty of Rs700000 was also imposed on the importer under clause 14 and 14(A) of the Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969.
