QUETTA: Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) has registered an FIR gainst M/s Saif & Sons, M/s Al-Fareed Foods Stuff and M/s Raja & Sons for their mis-declaring imported cashew nut and chick pea and clear banned products.
Sources said that M/s Raja & on behalf of client M/s Al-Fareed Foods Stuff transshipped a consignment to NLC Dry Port, Quetta from Customs Station Taftan, which was allowed for loading on the same date by Superintendent Taftan.
Information was received to I&I Quetta that the said consignment contained goods which are imported in violation of IPO, 2020 by mis-declaring the origin.
Further, the goods have been transshipped by M/s Al-Fareed Foods Stuff, who is not an importer of the goods in connivance with the clearing agent i.e. Raja & Sons and Customs staff posted at Customs Station, Taftan.
Subsequently, examination was conducted by Intelligence Officer Hamid Habib, Inspectors Haseeb Ahmed and Qasim Ali.
Examination of the goods revealed that it is a typical case of mix consignment and mis-declaration of origin and quantity of high value item to evade government revenue of Rs15 million. Consignment contained cashew nuts and chick pea. Importers/agent under-declared the weight of cashew and over-decalred the weight of chick pea (low value item). Morevoer, 13.8 tons of Indian origin cashew was also found.
Perusal of the data on WeBOC system revealed that goods were, infact, imported by M/s Saif & Sons. The importer at the time of filling IGM declared goods as Cashew Nuts and Chick-Pea weighing 45,200 Kgs contained in 2114 Packages without giving bifurcation of quantities of two commodities.
Goods were transported from Iran and Bandar Abbas was the port of shipment. The scrutiny of data further revealed that M/s Saif & Sons imported 30 different consignments which were illegally transshipped and cleared by M/s Al-Fareed Foods Stuff.
The entire scheme of Customs clearances has been hoodwinked by the importer and clearing agents in connivance of Customs staff at Taftan and NLC Dry Port Quetta.
A Quetta I&I official said importers were constantly defrauding the Customs and this recent case of mis-declaration is the proof. In another case, a container was de-stuffed without even filing the GD. There are reports the consignment contains Indian origin goods.
Further investigations are still underway till the filing of this report.
