ISLAMABAD: **The trail of the largest-ever import fraud, in which hundreds of containers with billions of rupees worth of expensive goods simply disappeared, has gone cold as Customs authorities in Peshawar say “we cannot proceed against the culprits”.
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The mega sized containers, mostly stuffed with precious consumer goods that attracted high-rated import duties, GST, Withholding Tax and Central Excise Duty, went missing in hundreds over the past couple of years, especially in the early months of 2007.
The fact that these containers were missing after their departure from Karachi for Peshawar was kept a closely guarded secret for more than 4 months but it finally came to the notice of NAB. Then The News found out what had actually transpired.
Five people, including two officials, got arrested as NAB moved to file a case. Some of the culprits are said to have left the country, Collector Customs Peshawar, Rozi Khan Burki, told this correspondent.
When asked to explain why his office was dragging its feet on this case, he said, “The issue is now in the court and we cannot do anything about it.”
When The News pointed out why departmental proceedings against officials suspected of collusion in this case were not started under the Customs laws, he did not have an answer.
Duties and taxes of billions of rupees were evaded by diverting more than 2,000 containers loaded with imported goods from other dry ports too, Customs authorities revealed. They added that the Customs Intelligence was on the heels of the culprits.
These containers were meant to reach their stipulated 13 dry ports in the four provinces of the country after being cleared for onward transport at the Karachi Port, but they never arrived at the dry ports. So no taxes or duties were collected.
At least, 10 importing companies have already conceded to the NAB that they had committed a fraud in collusion with the Customs authorities over the past couple of years by diverting the containers from the Peshawar Dry Port.
Some of them were forced to pay up amounts of taxes and duties they confessed to have defrauded after hundreds of their consignments of billions of rupees went missing on way from Karachi to upcountry.
However, **these importers were neither charged with any criminal offence nor were the officials who allowed them to pay up only the defrauded amount and not to answer for the entire consignments.
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The destination of at least 2,000 containers was the Punjab and the NWFP dry ports where they were bound to pay duties and taxes in full, and if not, they were to be arrested under fraud charges.
About six months ago, a NAB team investigating the issue drew up a list of suspects with the names of some who were habitually delinquents of such nature. These importers were approached and confessions were extracted from them to clearly suggest that they committed the fraud.
When asked why they were not charged with fraud, Collector Customs said: “Some of them are abroad after fleeing the country.” These importers were only charged a few million rupees in government revenue and were allowed to walk away with a clean record.
Former Member Customs, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Shahid Rahim, had refused to come on record on the issue when asked about extracting the taxes and duties and not charging the culprits with fraud cases. He only said: “No comments. What you are asking me to confirm or otherwise is in your knowledge, not in mine.”
**Later, at a reception, Rahim advised this correspondent to “be careful in your reporting”.
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The NAB sources, while in the process of collecting taxes and duties from these culprits to the tune of amounts calculated as defrauded, refused to accept that they had actually been going anything against the law. They also dispelled the impression that they were doing so with a clear intent of also extracting commission on the charged amounts, as the fraud was basically detected by Customs officials who, despite such malpractices, expected to also claim reward money for the detection of the fraud.
Both NAB and Customs officials are eligible to get commissions and rewards and in this case, the NAB authorities snatched the fish netted by the Customs, pushing the rest of the case onto the backburner.
Collector Burki was also asked if he agreed with the impression that, apart from the Peshawar Dry Port, there were also instances of fraudulent export-filing at the Torkham Customs Check Post, especially over the past year or so.
He denied it but said the Customs delegated the task of checking the exportable goods for payment of export rebate and refunds claimed on the Goods Declaration papers (GD) and it could not be checked thoroughly.
When asked when his office would proceed against the importers and officials suspected in the Dry Port container case, he said: “Not until the court is hearing the case.”
There is a clear provision in the Customs Law that proceedings against officials involved are departmentally conducted for arriving at the crux of allegations and investigations. However, the Peshawar collector has opted not to act.
Comment: Mashallah we keep our tradition of corruption alive.