KARACHI: Pakistan Customs failed an attempt to import soybean oil and soybean flour under the guise of cattle feed.
The importing company was trying to steal 3.5 million rupees in terms of duty and taxes by misdeclaring soybean products. Sources said that the Customs Appraisal SAPT Collectorate has registered two separate cases against the owner of the same company.
In the filed cases, the company is accused of importing soybean meal from Mozambique and soybean meal from Nigeria, while the goods were declared as “residues of grain for cattle feed”. This mis-declaration allowed the importer to circumvent mandatory documentation requirements and undervalue the goods, resulting in huge revenue losses for the government.
In the first case, involving imports from Mozambique, the company allegedly evaded about Rs 1 crore 99 lakh in duty taxes while the total value of the consignment is estimated at Rs 3 crore 6 lakh 91 thousand, while Soybean flour worth 69 lakh 60 thousand rupees was imported from Nigeria, on which 2 crore 44 lakh 7 thousand rupees were stolen in the form of duty and taxes.
An investigation conducted by the Collectorate revealed discrepancies between the import goods declaration submitted to Pakistan Customs and the data of the exporting countries.
During the investigation, the concerned shipping line also informed the authorities about the actual imported products and their prices from the export declarations and container tracking information of the said consignments.
Sources said that the said offenses involved violation of various sections of the Customs Act, 1969, Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1950, Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. Officials say that the owner of the importing company guilty of mis-declaration has been arrested and the elements and facilitators involved in the irregularity are being determined.
