KARACHI: MCC Appraisement West has lodged four more FIRs against several accused for importing grey fabric, lubricating oil and mis-declaring port of shipment as China instead of UAE with ulterior motive.
These importers imported several consignments of textile fabric and lubricating oil and the bills of lading of thes GDs borne the name of shipper as “Ziang Niong Corporation, Ningbo, China and M/s Shenzhen Honghaicheng Trading China and port of loading as China.
Investigations found that the importers with the active connivance of freight forwarder M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt Ltd and Customs clearing agents have been involved in the clearance of the above goods by mis-declaring the vital information with regard to the shipper’s name, port of loading, whereas, the goods were actually shipped by M/s AMI, Middle East LLC, Dubai UAE, in the name of M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt, Ltd, Karachi as consignee and port of loading as Dubai, UAE. But, M/s AMI Pakistan fraudulently manipulated the shipper’s name and port of loading.
During the course of scrutiny, it was been found that the said consignments were imported vide vessels whose shipping line happened to be M/s United Marine, Agencies Pvt Ltd Karachi. However, they further handed over the said consignment to M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt Ltd Karachi being freight forwarder, who electronically fed the information with the Customs in the import manifest (IGM) with regard to port of shipment of the goods as China, whereas, the goods were actually shipped from UAE.
It has been established beyond any shadow of doubt that the above mentioned consignments were actually imported from UAE, Dubai instead of China as shown in Master Bills of Lading, hence, M/s AMI Pakistan Pvt Ltd sub-agent/freight forwarder in connivance importers and clearing agents deliberately mis-declared the port of shipment of the goods as China as against the actual port of shipment UAE and shipper name to hoodwink the Customs authorities with the ulterior motive.
It may be mentioned here that 13 FIRs have already been lodged against several including M/s AMI Pakistan in the same cases. Customs authorities have detected thousands of such containers in which port of loading was mis-declared and these consignments carried Indian products.
Sources said FBR has issued an Alert and Collectorates are doing scrutiny of the data and it is likely that MCC Appraisement East would be making cases.
FBR is considering two officers to be sent to UAE for collecting the data and confirming such cases of fraud.