Customs made Rs 143 cr in FY '19-20; over Rs 45 crore from fraud & seizure

Update: 2020-07-03 19:08 GMT

New Delhi: The Delhi Customs garnered revenue of Rs 143 crore during financial year 2019-20 by preventing commercial fraud cases, seizures and through export promotion circles (EPC), which was 116 per cent more than Rs 66 crore earned during 2018-19. During the lockdown (April-June) through preventive activities, they garnered revenue of Rs 8 crore.

"More than Rs 45 crore were recovered through preventing frauds and seizures meanwhile rest of the revenues was accrued through EPC which facilitates trade through the issuance of duty exempting annexures," an official said.

As per Customs (Preventive Unit) data, disposal of valuable seized goods resulted in the realization of Rs 61.37 crore of revenue during the year 2019-20. "These goods were seized earlier. Foreign currency worth Rs 3.86 crore was also deposited in the bank during the same period," data shows.

Around Rs 69 lakh sticks of foreign origin cigarettes valued at around Rs 9.87 crore was seized last year from different places including the foreign post office, railway stations and the city. Further 4,835 kgs of seized cigarettes of foreign origin valued at Rs 2.28 crore were destructed in 2019.

"207.109 kgs of seized heroin having a market value of Rs 1,000 crore in the international market was disposed of by way of destruction in 2019," data shows.

Meanwhile, as many as 18 cases of export commercial fraud were detected during the lockdown period. The exporters tried to export goods worth Rs 170 crore, with around Rs 3.5 crore of drawback, by giving false information about the value of goods to the government. "An exporter is entitled to a cash refund, equivalent to a certain percentage of the export amount. The exporters, to earn money, gives overvalue invoice to the government," an official said.

As per the official, the following fraudulent exports may be used for trade-based money laundering (TBML) which means involves the export and import of goods and the exploitation of a variety of cross-border financial instruments of trade. Exporters were charged with penalties and goods were not allowed to export. "Knowing that invoicing their products under a particular slab will attract only plenty and not jail time many of these exporters make sure that they continued exports in small amounts by pricing their product below the slab. There are also cases where exporters gave a false address," the official said.

Further during lockdown three cases of drug trafficking were reported. "In all the cases drugs were coming from USA and drugs were concealed inside some objects like loudspeakers, computer servers," an official said. The follow-up searches conducted in the cases led to the apprehension of one juvenile.

In May, the customs at Delhi airport has stopped shipments of over 5 lakh masks and nearly 1,000 bottles of sanitisers and PPE kits at its terminal that were being smuggled into countries including the China, US, UK and UAE.

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