The research and development section of the Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement-East lodged a case on Tuesday against three importing companies for 13 consignments of ball bearings that, reportedly, received clearance on the basis of misdeclaration.
According to the sources, these three companies have committed the theft of 3 crores, 61 lac, and 18 thousand Rupees. Customs authorities have started legal actions against Muhammad Muneer, the owner of M/s Muneer Traders, Zaman Khan, the owner of Junaid Traders, Shaikh Muhammad Bilal Shahzad, the owner of M/s Zainab International along with the Custom clearance agents, Muhammad Waqar Alam, the owner of M/s Waqar and Brothers, Amir Mansha, the owner of M/s Amir International, after registering the cases.
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Sources further reported that after the increasing cases of irregularities in the consignments of ball bearings, Tariq Huda, member customs, FBR directed to take strict action. Collector Engr. Riaz Memon instructed the officers of R&D to recheck the data of the concerned consignments.
The officers then rechecked the data of M/s Muneer Traders/s Junaid Traders and M/s Zainab International. It was exposed that M/s Zainab International who got clearance on misdeclaration was found to have committed a theft of Rs 20122236.00 in 2019-20 during the clearance of 4 consignments of ball bearings. M/s Muneer Traders was found the commitment of theft of Rs 12317764.00 during the clearance of the consignments of ball bearings.
This year in May, the issue of the import of ball bearing was raised and the importers of the same had reservations about the duty and other charges levied on the import of ball bearing. The ball bearings of China were of lesser value than those imported from Japan. The importers had raised this point at a higher level.
Now the recent cases of fraud reveal that things are not fully satisfactory in the offices of the stakeholders. The customs authorities, clearing agents, and the importers should come at one page so that the probability of fraud may vanish.
