Customs Appraisement Peshawar has lodged an FIR against several importers and Customs agents for evading government revenue through mis-declaring the weight of the imported goods.
A FIR no 20/2023 has lodged against 01-Mosam Shinwari Traders (SMC-Private) Limited (NTN#8417141) Office No 2, Haji Shamroz, Bulding Torkham,
02- Qadeem Enterprises (Challan# 18120).Office No 01, Haji Shamroz Market, Torkham Border.
03- Rayan Import Export Company Private Limited (NTN#
8020167). office no.71, Qaumi Market, Torkham District Khyber
04- M/S Z & S Traders (NTN# 8125957). Flat No 06, Qaumi Market, Torkham
05- Sudais Enterprises (Challan # 15720).Gulbahar No.4, Javid Town,, Street 2, Flat No, H-18,Z-21, Peshawar
06- Ahmad and Sons (NTN# 9370135). Office No P-1 111, Jeff Heights Main Boulevard, Gulberg III, Lahore
07- Ali Customs Clearing Agency (Challan # 18020).Office No. 5, Qaumi Market, Near Bilal Masjid, Main Bazar
Torkham, Khyber,
08- Rayan Afghan Customs Agency (Challan# 20320).Office No. 73, Qoumi Market, Torkham, Khyber.
The sources said that there are many Others also involved in this spam those will be nominated during Investigation.
According to document the said Information was received through the Chief Collector North Muhammad Saleem to Collector of Customs Appraisement Peshawar Muhammad Ashfaq Khan that some Customs Clearing Agents have cleared their perishable consignments on lesser weight rather than their actual weights by misusing/forging NLC issued weighment slips to evade payment of leviable duty and taxes.
Upon receiving the information, a team headed by Additional Collector Customs Muhammad Rizwan was constituted to probe into the matter.
During initial probe for the period from 01.06.2023 to 08.08.2023, around 203 weight slip entries in manual register of Customs Enforcement at gate-in pertaining to the consignments cleared by the Clearing Agents mentioned above did not match with that of their respective GDs in Web Based One Customs (WeBOC) as their slips were showing lesser weight than that of the weights mentioned in the manual register.
Meanwhile the team found eight original weighment slips showing exact weight and other particulars as mentioned in the manual register. The above Clearing Agents instead of mentioning the original weight used the tampered weighment slips and mentioned lesser weight against their respective GDs in WeBOC to get unfair advantage by evading payment of leviable duty and taxes.
The recovery of original weighment slips has substantiated the tempering/forgery in Weighment slips uploaded/used by the agents in their consignments.
Approximate amount of revenue loss at this initial stage has come out to the tune of Rs9.14 million. Further investigation is underway.
An official said the weighment was the responsibility of NLC adding that NLC staff was accomplice in the scam. The official said relatives of several NLC employees were Customs agents, and they often connived in defrauding the government.
