Staff Reporter (Chittagong) : A new method of import fraud has been caught at Chittagong Port. Recently, two unknown companies brought 26 tons of cigarette paper under the guise of declaring paper ribbon and straw paper. The two companies tried to evade customs and taxes worth Tk 137 crore through this illegal import.
VAT officials believe that if the products produced using these raw materials were brought to the market through a legal process, at least 4,000 crore taka of VAT could have been collected from there. Every year, a large amount of customs and tax is being evaded under the guise of various products and nameless and unknown organizations. It is believed that influential circles are involved in this.
According to sources at the Chittagong Customs House, Dhaka-based RM Enterprises brought a 16-ton shipment of straw paper from Hong Kong to Chittagong Port in mid-July.
In late July, another company called Smart Move announced a shipment of ribbon paper weighing about 10 tons. When suspicions arose about these two shipments, samples of the products were tested at BUET, Dhaka University, and Khulna University of Engineering and Technology. This confirmed that the products were actually cigarette paper.
Customs officials said that even after the false declaration was revealed during the product inspection, the importers contacted the top level of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and tried to release the invoices. If the two invoices were released, the government would have lost a huge amount of revenue. The import duty from the 16-ton invoice of RM Enterprise was about 1 crore taka. If cigarettes were produced with these, the VAT would have been 85 crore taka. On the other hand, the duty from the Smart Move invoice was about 7 million taka. And if cigarettes were produced, the VAT amount would have been 50 crore taka.
Meanwhile, the address given by RM Enterprises and Smart Move as their office address against the invoice was not found to exist during the customs inspection.
According to NBR documents, RM Enterprises had previously imported 489 tons of cigarette raw materials in eight shipments, worth Tk 27.9 crore.
The officials concerned say that it is not possible to release these seized products under the declared name. If the products are released, the applicable duty on cigarette paper and fine for false declaration will have to be paid. The concerned VAT office will be requested to verify the previous import and sale accounts of the institutions, so that the government’s dues can be confirmed.