LAHORE: The Customs Intelligence here on Friday unearthed an alleged fraud of millions of rupees whereby a company had got cleared banned electronic gadgets in connivance with the customs officials of Air Freight Unit (AFU) through mis-declaration.
Upon specific information that a consignment of access gateways equipment unlawfully was cleared by the officials of customs posted at Air Freight Unit (AFU), Islamabad airport, the Customs Intelligence officials seized the equipment and arrested one person identified as Nadeem Afzal, sources said.
The access gateway equipment was imported by M/s Chase Trading & Technology Co, Islamabad but had declared it as switches. Under the law, the cleared equipment is not importable unless the “type approval” is obtained prior from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) by the importer.
The company had attempted to circumvent the import restrictions by way of mis-declaring the consignment as switches and in connivance with the officials concerned was able to get the goods cleared.
Moreover, the actual customs value of the imported goods (access gateways equipment) is Rs 15.80 million whereas the customs staff had cleared the same as switches at the nominal value of Rs 66,250.
Further investigations revealed that the same importer had previously succeeded to get cleared a consignment of 32 pieces of access gateway by submitting mis-declaration of physical description and value through the Islamabad dry port and evaded duty and taxes to the tune of Rs 9.6 million in addition to circumventing the import restrictions of Import Policy Order, 2016.
Actual value of the consignment was Rs 20.3 million, which was cleared by customs staff at Rs 68,500. The total differential duty/taxes in both the cases are Rs 17.2 million. An FIR has been lodged against the accused and further investigations are underway.
