Pharmaceutical raw material: Customs department detects misdeclaration of import value

The Customs Department has detected over 700 percent miss-declaration in the import value of pharmaceutical raw material - Bromazepam, a substance used in the medicine to relieve anxiety, nervousness and tension, it is learnt here.
According to sources, a consignment of pharmaceutical raw material - Bromazepam, weighted 25 kilograms, which was imported from Switzerland, arrived at Karachi airport in August.
They said that the invoice submitted along with Goods Declaration (GD) was showing the value of said goods as $688 per kg.
However, the department during the course of processing the consignment, found that the said pharmaceutical substance was also imported at the rate of $5,555 per kg from the same source ie Switzerland by other company.
Keeping the said facts in view, it is evident that unscrupulous elements deliberately miss-declared the value of imported goods on GD, which resulted in short realisation of legitimate revenue to the tune of Rs1.38 million including Rs0.613 million Customs Duty and Rs0.773 million income tax.
They said that difference between the declaration made in GD by the importer and value ascertained by the Customs authorities was 707 percent.
Moreover, sources said the factual position was enough to confirm that said importer has committed an offence. Therefore, action is going to be taken against the importer under subsection (1) (2) of Section 32, Section 156(1) of the Customs Act 1969, Section 11 (3) of Sales Tax Act 1990 and Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.