KARACHI: Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi directed the investigation officer to complete a probe and submit a challan within the stipulated period against absconders and accused directors M/s ATS Synthetic (Pvt) Ltd, M/s Inservey Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and owners/partners of M/s S. K. Enterprises booked in a case of filing of incorrect Import General Manifest (IGM) data in Pakistan Customs Computerized System (WeBOC) system of three different consignments to evade duty and taxes of Rs998245.
During the hearing, investigation officer produced an FIR and submitted that abovementioned companies imported different types of polyester including Spl Tricot, Woven and Jersey (knitted) and directors of M/s ATS Synthetic (Pvt) Ltd imported three consignments and declared them ‘fabric’. On an information received from MCC Appraisement (West) Karachi and after investigation, it was learnt that M/s Inservey Pakistan (Private) Limited has committed a fraud by issuing fake ‘Bills of Landing’ in place of the original ones.
He submitted that during the investigation, it was observed that freight forwarders/co-loader/shipping agent M/s Inservey Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd with the connivance of accused importer have been involved in the clearance of various goods by misleading the vital information with regard to the shipper’s name, port of landing and country of origin. “The goods were actually shipped from Korea but M/s Inservey Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, issuing of House Bills of Landing and filing the IGM in WeBOC fraudulently, manipulated the shipper’s name as ‘Huzhoucathe Textiles Company Ltd, Huzhou, China, and port of loading as Shanghai. China.” These consignments were shipped from Kwangyang, Korea, through M/s Korea Marine Transport Co. Ltd whose master shipping agent was M/s United Marine Agencies (Pvt) Ltd Karachi.
According to the prosecution, M/s Inservey Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd. Karachi with connivance of the importer electronically fed incorrect/false information with ulterior motives in the WeBOC. The Bill of Lading, showing wrong shipper’s name and country of origin as China instead of actual particulars information, mentioned in the Master Bill of Lading by M/s Korea Marine Transport Co. Ltd. Goods were misdeclared to avail inadmissible concession of Pak-China ETA regime under SRO 659(I)/2007.
A case was registered in violation of Section 19, 32(1). 32(2). 32A, 79 of the Customs Act-1969 punishable under clause 10A, 14, 14A and 46 of section 56(1) of the Customs Act-1969 read with Import and Export (Control) Act-1950.
After the hearing, court adjourned the hearing and directed IO to submit challan within a reasonable period.
