KARACHI: The Research and Development (R&D) Department of Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Appraisement-East has registered FIRs against the owner of M/s H A Karim International, Muhammad Azfar Javed and proprietor of A to Z company, Shaikh Muhammad Khurram Shahzad for millions of rupees tax and duty evasion by misdeclaration and under-invoicing.
The FIRs bearing No.MCC/Misc/288/2013 and MCC/Misc/288/2013 against the accused persons revealed that the amount of revenue involved in duty evasion was Rs9,677,092 in first case and Rs 10,271,653 in second case, which means that a total amount of revenue loss in term of tax evasion was estimated as Rs19,948,745.
Sources in MCC-Appraisement (East) told Customs Today that the Collectorate received information regarding evasion of a huge amount of revenue by HA Karim International and A to Z company through misdeclaration of miscellaneous items.
It was also disclosed by the sources that consignments of HA Karim International were filed through Goods Declaration No. KAPE-HC-7724-310713, KAPE-HC-9130-050813, KAPE-HC-9136-050813 were got cleared through Customs Computerised System without physical examination and clearance of goods was managed at Karachi by a self-proclaimed customs agent Mian Tahir on the basis of self-clearance on the behalf of accused importer.
“The physical examination resulted in unearthing the scam of gross misdeclaration in term of quantity and weight, besides under valuation of imported items in violation of relevant valuation rulings which had not been applied”, sources added.
The recoverable amount of duty has been worked out to be Rs9,677,092, which may be recovered by the importer, the sources said, adding that the importer has deliberately attempted to conceal the actual description of the goods.
The sources further stated that the importer has violated the provisions Section 32 (1) & (2) read with the Sections 25 (A),79, 80, 155 (D), (H), (I) and (K) of the Customs Act, 1969 read with the Sections 3, 6 and 7 A of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Section 148 (1) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and the importer is punishable under clause (14), (43), (101) and (103) of Section 156 (1) of the Customs Act, 1969 and Sections 33 and 34, 36 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.
“Due to the backdrop of all such violation of the Sections, an FIR has been lodged and investigation has been initiated to arrest the culprits involved in the crime”, sources revealed.
Sources said that the same was done in case of M/s A to Z company, but the evasion of tax amount in such case was much bigger than HA Karim International and the R&D Department has found that a huge amount of Rs10,271,653 has been evaded through misdeclaration of the miscellaneous items on GDs No. KAPE-HC-7720-310713, KAPE-HC-9142-050813, KAPE-HC-9150-050813 and KAPE-HC-9153-050813.
“The same type of violations of the Sections of Customs Act 1969, Sales Tax, 1990 and Income Tax Ordinance 2001 have been found against A to Z company and FIR has also been lodged against the culprits”, sources added.
