KARACHI: Pakistan Customs foiled an attempt to import soybean oil and soybean flour under the guise of cattle feed.
Sources told Express that the importing company was trying to steal Rs 3.5 million in duty and taxes by misdeclaring soybean products. Sources said that the Customs Appraisal SAPT Collectorate has registered two separate cases against the owner of the same company.
In the filed cases, the company is accused of importing soybean meal from Mozambique and soybean meal from Nigeria, while the goods were labeled as “residues for cattle feed”. .
This mis-declaration allowed the importer to circumvent the mandatory documentation requirements and undervalue the goods, thereby causing huge revenue losses to the government.
In the first case, by including the imports from Mozambique, the company allegedly stole about 1 crore 99 lakh rupees in terms of duty and tax, while the total value of this consignment is estimated at 3 crore 6 lakh 91 thousand rupees, while the value of the consignment from Nigeria is 69 lakh 60 thousand rupees. Soybean flour was imported, on which 2 crore 44 lakh 7 thousand rupees were stolen in the form of duty and taxes.
Sources said that the customs authorities had received confirmed information about the importers that some importers were causing huge loss to the national exchequer by importing soybean products through mis-declaration. In this regard, on the investigation conducted by the Collectorate, discrepancies were identified between the import goods declaration submitted to Pakistan Customs and the data of the exporting countries.
During the investigation, the concerned shipping line also informed the authorities about the actual imported products and their prices from the export declarations and container tracking information of the said consignments.
According to the cases filed by Pakistan Customs, the accused not only misrepresented the description and price of the goods, but also failed to provide the necessary documents required under the Import Policy Executive Order 2022, including phytosanitary certificates and other food certificates. Safety compliance documentation included.
Sources said that the said offenses involved violation of various sections of the Customs Act, 1969, the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1950, the Sales Tax Act, 1990 and the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
Officials say that the owner of the importing company guilty of mis-declaration has been arrested and the elements and facilitators involved in the irregularity are being determined.
