Rs1.4b duty, tax evasion unearthed
The Directorate of Post Clearance Audit Customs North has unearthed the customs duty and tax evasion amounting to Rs1.4 billion under the Export Facilitation Scheme 2021.
The fraud was discovered during a post-customs clearance audit. Officials of the Directorate of Post Clearance Audit say that Export Facilitation Scheme 2021 was misused by M/s Premium Textile Blanket Industry.
Officials said that the said company had obtained a licence to import goods worth Rs16 billion under the Export Facilitation Scheme but it started selling the garments, made for export, in the local market.
Read Rs1 trillion vanishes in tax evasion annually
The Directorate of Post Clearance Audit team also raided the company's office in Bara Bazar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The company had imported more than 2.476 million kgs of various types of valuable fabrics under the Export Facilitation Scheme. During the investigation, it was also pointed out that 2,194 tons of cloth was not exported by the company and there was no stock of said cloth in the warehouse.
It should be noted that the sale of manufactured garments under export concession in the local market is illegal under the scheme.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2024.