KARACHI: The Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I&I), Karachi on the directive of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has got an FIR registered against an Assistant Collector (AC) in MCC-East, who is allegedly involved in mis-declaration in miscellaneous containers case.
Sources in Directorate of Customs I&I confirmed that an FIR has been registered against Assistant Collector Aftab Ahmed and investigation is underway against two Appraisers Jam Akram and Rasheed Khan in MCC-East, who allegedly cleared the GDs of three containers of miscellaneous goods without conducting proper examination and assessment.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Director Customs Intelligence Dr Manzoor Hussain Memon has already informed Customs Today that the Directorate of Customs I&I has written a letter to FBR in which requesting it to allow the Customs Intelligence to investigate concerned officials in miscellaneous containers case.
It may be mentioned here that the Customs Intelligence had seized three containers of miscellaneous items belonging to A to Z Company and H A International at Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) on 15 August and later the Customs Intelligence officials had found that a duty of around Rs8.4million had been evaded through mis-declaration.
Later, the Customs Intelligence found that the importers Muhammad Afsar Javed, proprietor of H A International and Khurram Sheikh, proprietor of A to Z company were involved in evasion of customs duty and other taxes on import and clearance of the consignments of miscellaneous items through mis-declaration.
Sources disclosed that it was found after investigation that a majority of such consignments had been cleared through Customs Computerised System without physical examination.
It was further stated that the clearance of goods was managed by self-proclaimed clearing agent Mian Tahir on self-declaration by misusing the User ID of Assistant Collector. The Customs Intelligence has seized three containers of 1×40’ size with Nos. TGHU-9159599, KKFU-7437243 and KKFU-7507968.
Sources in Customs Intelligence further informed that FIRs against two Appraisers may also be registered in a few days.
