KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued notices to the deputy attorney general, customs authorities and others on a petition filed M/s Digicom Trading, challenging registration of an FIR against it on the charges of mobile phones smuggling.
The petitioner submitted that the Custom preventive had registered mobile phone smuggling case against the company alleging that over 63,000 mobile phones were smuggled while mis-declaring it as LED lights.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the mobile phones were not smuggled by mis-declaration but the company had imported LED lights from Dubai and cleared its containers through green channel of customs. He submitted that company got cleared its consignment after fulfilling all custom duties and unaware about the changing of consignment. He submitted that proper inquiry of the incident should be conducted and requested the court to restrain the customs authorities from taking any coercive action against the petitioner. He also sought a detailed inquiry into the incident and requested the court to quash the FIR registered by the customs authorities under custom and sales tax laws.
The court after preliminary hearing of the petitions issued notices to the federal law officer, customs preventive and others and called their comments on November 11.
It is pertinent to mention that customs authorities had claimed seizure of a container which had more than 63,000 mobile phones and over 500 tablets worth Rs 285 million in the market.
According to Customs authorities, a container was seized at Saddar area after receiving credible information that some importers were misusing the facility of green channel under paperless Web Based One Customs (WeBOC) system and getting their goods cleared from Karachi by declaring them LED lights and bulbs in their description.
Customs had registered a case against M/s Digicom accusing it of smuggling electronic items mobile phones through mis-declaration.
