LAHORE: The Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation has unearthed another Rs 200 million illegal goods and articles scam in connection with the Transshipment Permit (TP).
According to sources, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation on the information of Director Imtiaz Ahmad Khan seized a godown teemed with illegal electronic goods and auto-parts worth million of rupees. The source said the goods belonged to traders of Hall Road Mall Road and Badami Bagh who stored the goods and article in a godown near Badian Road.
Meanwhile, the Directorate got a clue of another seven containers at NLC and three at Faisalabad Dry Port and wrote letters to the collectors concerned to present contravention report against the containers. The officials’ sources said that a large number of traders may be involved in this practice who ordered the accused in the case to bring in goods from China. The sources said that the goods are transported by Docks PVT Limited which is a well-known company. However, the FBR has been contacted for the cancellation of its license as its has been found involved in travelling the TP goods and giving the accused considerable time to replace high value goods with low value goods inflicting heavy losses to the national exchequer.
“Few days back we seized a godown containing TP goods including auto-parts which belonged to traders from Badami Bagh. The seizure involved duty and taxes worth Rs 6.5 million. Meanwhile, seven containers of TP goods worth Rs 200 million at NLC Dry Port and three at the Faisalabad have been traced,” Lahore Directorate of Investigation and Intelligence Additional Director Rizwan Slabat told Customs Today. “We have duly asked the collectors concerned to register contraventions in this regard,” he said, adding that further investigation in this regard is underway. Earlier, the Directorate booked accused in the TP goods at a Godown of Rana Tahir Concrete at Shamake Bhattia, Multan Road.
The Directorate of Investigation and Intelligence disclosed that the TP goods were routinely replaced, rewinding the levers of the containers and replacing the Customs seal with low priced goods to evade duty and taxes. The customs authorities revealed that the importers of the TP electronic goods and auto-parts got the goods cleared after replacing high value goods with low value.
The Customs authorities disclosed that they acting upon an information constituted a customs police party under the supervision of superintendent Gulzar Ali on the order of Additional Director Rizwan Slabat and raided the godown and during the search it was seen that the TP valuable goods were being replaced with low value goods including glass balls, china clay, laptop bags and yellow powder for clearance at NLC Dry Port Lahore.
The customs authorities following the raid recovered fake customs seals along with the container, trailer and other goods recovered from the gowdown were seized. The Customs authorities alleged that importer, Abdur Rehman Brothers, Docks Customs Clearing Agents/ Bonded Carrier Karachi, Jamshad Iqbal, Ahmad Sadiq, driver and cleaner of the trailer were found involved in transportation, pilferage and fraudulent replacement of TP goods violating section 2(s) of Customs Act 1969 and lodged FIR in this connection.
During the investigations, Rana Tahir has disclosed that he had rented out the godown to Ch Jamshad Iqbal alias Jamshed Butt of M/s KS Traders. The Customs Adjudication had summoned as many as 27 accused on January 6 to explain their side.
