According to the sources, M/s Zeal Pak Cement Factory had imported 86,531 metric tons of Portland clinker and was in the process of clearing the aforesaid imported Portland clinker through four goods declarations. A large part of the goods had been cleared on the basis of the value declared by the importer. In the meantime, the Directorate General received information to the effect that the goods had been heavily under-invoiced. The remaining part of the consignments was seized. In order to ascertain the actual transaction value of the clinker, the Directorate General approached the Iranian Customs through Embassy of Pakistan in Tehran and was able to get hold of the original export documents on which the actual transaction value of the imported goods had been declared.
It surfaced that the actual transaction value of the goods was US $3,618,921 whereas the said company had declared only US $1,707,431 to Pakistan Customs and had suppressed US $1,911,490 by way of fabricating false invoices and other import documents. The amount of evaded government revenue on the impugned goods works out to Rs 47 million.
It is apparent that the said factory had sent an amount of US $1,911,490 to Iran through illegal non banking/ Hundi channel and had indulged in money laundering, besides evading legitimate government revenue of Rs 47 million and submitting false/ fabricated documents to banks/customs.
An FIR has been lodged against the fraudulent importer. Past imports by company are also been investigated and significant revelations regarding money laundering and theft of government revenue are likely to surface, sources added. In pursuance of a specific information, the Regional Office (Customs Enforcement), Karachi of this Directorate General has unearthed illegal removal of 2150365 metric tons of imported GP steel sheet coils, imported by M/s Gogan Steel Traders, Karachi from public bonded warehouse of M/s Meezan Enterprises, Karachi. Preliminary investigation has revealed that 19 consignments of the aforesaid commodity weighing 3171933 metric tons were cleared from MCC Port Qasim during the period from September 2014 to July, 2015 out of which a quantity of only 300 metric tons was ex-bonded in December 2015 meeting thereby that a balance of 2871933 metric tons should have been available in the bonded warehouse. However, physical checking/stocktaking along with retrieval of relevant gate passes and bank lien record revealed that 2150365 metric tons of GP steel sheets coils valued at Rs 112.625 million had been removed without payment of duty/taxes amounting to Rs 66.448 million.
Investigation is in progress and the role of other possible associates-in-crime including customs staff will be determined during the investigation, sources added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017