Rs 1,000-cr scam: Rice meant for Iran diverted to Dubai by unscrupulous traders to pocket incentives

Though, the Centre confirmed that the scam had taken place, it refused to name the exporters involved. While informing the Lok Sabha about it, Minister of State for Finance Minister Jayant Sinha on Friday said, “A massive scam in the export of high-quality Basmati rice has been unearthed in the recent past.”

“The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had detected cases of diversion of Basmati rice export wherein consignments or rice meant for Iran were diverted to Dubai,” said Sinha in a written reply to the lower house.

“The payments were made in Indian rupees instead of freely convertible foreign currency by misusing the facilities granted to the goods actually exported to Iran,” the minister added.

Commenting on the issue, All India Rice Exporters Association’s executive director Rajen Sundaresan said, “We don’t consider it a ‘scam’. It’s their (DRI’s) scam and they are making money. I have no comments to make on this issue.”

According to sources, over 25 big exporters from Haryana and Punjab are under the scanner of DRI and other agencies for their involvement in the multi-crore scam in which over 2 lakh MT of Basmati rice was illegally offloaded in Dubai in last year instead of in Bandar Abbas in Iran.

However, a market expert, who refused to be named, said that the government’s move to brand it as a scam would discourage the export business, which is moving at a snail’s pace.