KARACHI: MCC Appraisement-West has withheld two out of seven vehicles imported on fake permission letter of Ministry of Commerce while Collector of MCC Appraisement-West Muhammad Saleem has pledged firm commitment and determination to unveil the real culprits behind the illegal importation of vehicles on fake documents.
Collector Saleem informed Customs Today that two vehicles among seven have been confiscated by the Collectorate and the accused import manager namely, Muhammad Azam of M/s Trade Line International has been arrested. A notice under section 171 of the Custom Act, 1969 has been served to him, he informed.
“Efforts are being made to arrest the remaining accused persons and to recover the other vehicles,” the Collector added.
He further informed this scribe that an FIR has been lodged accordingly for detailed investigation of the crime, adding that remaining imported vehicles would be recovered within a week.
It may be mentioned here that through Appraising Officer in AIB/PRV Section, Muhammad Naeem Khan it came into knowledge of the collectorate that the vehicles were imported in the name of Pakistani nationals, from Japan, under the provisions mentioned in Appendix-E to para 15 of the Import Policy, 2013.
The importers who were involved in importation of the vehicles on fake permission letter were Ihsanullah, Moosa Khan, Muhammad Khan, Qamar-uddin Fakhar, Safdar Ali, Wajid Ali and Amanullah, who imported two Toyota Premio, Model 2008; three Mercedes C-200 Model 2008; and two Toyota Rush, Model 2007.
Goods Declaration bearing no KAPR-HC-25876, dated 22-02-2014; KAPR-HC-25873, dated 22-02-2014; KAPR-HC-25828, dated 22-02-2014; KAPR-HC-25829, dated 22-02-2014; KAPR-HC-18232, dated 06-12-2013; KAPR-HC-16146, dated 21-11-2013; and KAPR-HC-11322, dated 14-10-2013 for clearance of the aforesaid vehicles mentioned at serial No. 1 to 7 respectively were filed through Customs agents namely M/s Trade Line International and M/s Services.
Furthermore, on scrutiny of the import documents and the declaration made by the importer, the age of imported vehicles were found older than three years and were not importable under sub-clause (2) of the clause (3) of Appendix-E of the Import Policy 2013, therefore, the release of the vehicles was disallowed.
Subsequently, the abovementioned customs agents on behalf of the importers provided an import permission No. 11(2)/2009-Imp-I, dated 06-03-2014 from Ministry of Commerce for release of aforementioned vehicles on one time basis subject to payment of surcharge @ 5 per cent of C&F Value and leviable duty/taxes. The vehicles were accordingly allowed release.
Thereafter, the Ministry of Commerce vide its letter bearing No. 10(18)/2012-Imp-II, dated 14-05-2014, informed that the permission letter, dated 06-03-2014 provided for the release of the afore-referred vehicles, imported in contravention of the Import Policy Order, 2013 was neither embossed nor issued by the section concerned of the Ministry of Commerce and it was, therefore, fake.
Thus, it was established that the accused persons and their associates clearing/customs agents have contravened the provisions of Section 2(s) and 16 and are guilty of the offences as defined under Section 32(I), 32A(I)(a) and 192, punishable under clause 8,14, 14A,77,86 &89 of Section 156(I) of the Customs Act, 1969, sub-Section (I) of section 3 of Import & Export (Control) Act, 1950 read with Appendix-E of the Import Policy Order-2013 notified vide SRO193(I)/2013 dated 08-03-2013, further read with SRO566(I)/2005 dated 06-02-2005.
