Without any let-up in clearance of pork under the guise of organic fertilisers, customs authorities have acquired special equipment to verify the content of pork meat in the imported consignments.
Sources said here on Thursday that though check has been placed on the import of organic fertilisers, it is not clear that how the customs would trace the pork meat content from consignments imported during the last many years, as pork was imported from the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as "mad cow disease", infected countries.
It is difficult to specify period during which pork meat content was imported from BSE infected countries, as no kit was available when these consignments reached the ports. Now, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has stopped the clearance of organic fertiliser and meat/bone meal consignments till checked by the special kit purchased on the request of Collectorate of Customs, Appraisement.
All such consignments would be referred to the PCSIR laboratory to ensure that these do not contain pork content or its by products.
According to board's directive issued to the collectors of customs on Thursday, certain unscrupulous persons are still importing meat meal/bone meal from the BSE infected countries and poultry feed containing pork content under the garb of organic fertiliser.
The import of pork is banned under Import Policy Order 2005-2006. The CBR stated that there was no scientific facility available to differentiate between the animal protein containing pork or other meat. The collectors should also ensure that organic fertiliser, bone meal consignments imported from the BSE infected countries are not cleared, as prohibited under the Import Policy Order, the instructions added.
The board had already initiated adjudication proceedings against five firms, who imported poultry feed containing pork meat, mis-declaring the consignments as organic fertiliser in 2005. Sources added that the CBR instructions did not give any guidelines to investigate the clearance of past consignments of pork imported from the BSE infected countries.