Staff Reporter, Daily Dawn, Dawn TV Report
Karachi: The Federal Board of Revenue, in an unprecedented enforcement operation, has unearthed a major fraud being carried out at Jinnah International Airport Karachi. In which valuable electronic goods were being illegally taken out without submitting a declaration or paying customs duty and taxes. This scam was being run in collusion with corrupt importers by employees of a foreign ground handling company, which was also tasked with monitoring these goods. The company’s employees were found to be involved in taking out electronic goods worth crores of rupees from the airport by issuing fake documents.
The fraud came to light after receiving reliable intelligence information, due to which surveillance at Karachi Airport was tightened. As a result of timely action, a consignment worth Rs 103 million was seized before it was taken out, which included laptops, iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, PlayStations and memory cards. In addition, two more consignments were also found to have been fraudulently cleared based on fake gate passes.
The Collectorate of Customs Airport Karachi immediately registered two FIRs and arrested the employees of the company involved in the crime.
Investigation has confirmed that a total of five consignments were illegally moved out of the airport through this fraudulent method. All these consignments were sent from M/s Pir Jilani General Trading LLC, Dubai. These consignments, which were packed in two pallets, were deliberately hidden from the WeBOC system of Customs, due to which clearance was made possible with the help of fake gate passes without filing a GD.
The total estimated value of customs duty and tax evasion on the illegal clearance of the five consignments is Rs. 384 million.
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