The Directorate-General of Intelligence and Investigation (DGI&I), FBR, has unearthed a unique duty drawback scam as some 15 consignments of salt were cleared as rebate-able items through Pakistan Computerised Customs Clearance System (PaCCS), causing millions of rupees loss to national kitty.
The action was taken in pursuance of the Sri Lanka customs letter No CIU/V/OCB/RQA/08/01 dated August 10, 2009 regarding investigation assistance into the export consignments of salt to Sri Lanka. According to the official report, some 15 consignments of salt were shipped from Karachi by Silver Leaves Manufacturer, Karachi, Samina Industries, Karachi and Trans-Asia, Karachi, and all of them were cleared through Model Customs Collectorate (MCC), PaCCS.
The shipping bills of the companies showed that the consignments were declared as '5 Mt salt' containing 100 bags of 50 kg, whose value amounted to $ 16,500. However, the exporters declared the goods as 'Aluminium Alloy Metal Utensils and PVC Dipped Cotton Gloves, and Surgical Tapes' worth $ 2.201 million through online GDs filed in PaCCS.
Surprisingly, the MCC had not only cleared the consignments without physical examination but it also issued the duty drawback cheques of Rs 15.896 million. The report said that all 15 E-form numbers established from Habib Metropolitan Bank, Main Boulevard Branch Lahore and mentioned in the online GDs filed by the accused exporters were found deceitful.
In order to obtain inadmissible duty drawback, the exporters had misused the online facility of PaCCS and declared the salt consignments as high value rebate-able items. The report further said the FIR has been lodged and department has initiated legal proceedings against the exporters. The syndicate of criminals took advantage of inefficient Risk Management System (RMS) of PaCCS since its establishment, which provided billions of rupees losses to national exchequer, so far.
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