Customs finds alarming rise of corruption in import
Customs authorities have detected an alarming number of false declarations about import consignments at Chittagong Seaport recently.
Irregularities were detected in the declarations for 367 consignments in the first seven months of this fiscal year, while only 58 such consignments had been detected during the same period in the last fiscal year.
In January this year alone a record 122 cases of false declarations were detected.
A section of importers and their clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents are involved in the falsifications in a bid to evade paying proper duties and taxes, and to smuggle in contraband goods, said revenue officials of Chittagong Customs House.
Although the customs authority has recently steeply increased the amount of fine for false declarations, the practice continues.
Chittagong Customs House Commissioner Dr Maruful Islam said the amount of fine for importing goods under false declaration was increased to 200 percent of the evaded amount of duties and taxes in November last year.
The authority realised Tk 52 crore in fines and recovery of evaded taxes and duties from C&F agents and importers in the last seven months of this fiscal year, while the amount was Tk 6.4 crore during the same period of the last fiscal year. In January this year the amount was Tk 21 crore.
Usually weights and prices of goods are shown less in false declarations, said Md Omar Faruk, a revenue officer of Audit Investigation and Research (AIR) section of Chittagong Customs House.
Some items of goods are available in different grades, usually duties and taxes are higher for products of higher grades. The falsifiers often declare lower grades of goods while actually importing higher grades, Faruk explained.
Sometimes totally different items than what have been declared are imported, he said adding that such incidents are however fewer in number because in such cases there is a risk of seizure of the entire consignment.
Customs officials claimed they were able to detect such a high number of falsifications because of the department’s renewed strictness.
Some officials said the department became stricter since some new appointments had been made a few months back, including to the posts of commissioner, additional commissioner, and joint commissioner.
The commissioner hopes that the number of such incidents will come down if the strict monitoring continues.
-With The Daily Star input
