The Nhava Sheva customs in five separate operations in the past one week had seized containers containing several is-declared materials valued at crores of rupees. The materials contained grains, mobile accessories and electronic items.
Speaking about the operations, a customs official said, "On Tuesday, on receipt of specific inputs, we intercepted six containers having 153 metric tonnes "Moth Beans" of Afghan origin with a declared value of Rs 1.16 crore. On examination, No marks indicating Afghan origin were found in packing materials. Instead, the majority of inner packing materials (inner & outer plastic gunny bags) were found with evidence of Pakistan origin marks on it, confirming it to be of Pakistani origin. Duty evasion is approximately Rs. 2.32 crore in this case as Pakistani origin goods attract 200 percent basic customs duty (BCD) on all imports from Pakistan".
The same day, the Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) of customs had examined a container with goods declared as mobile accessories of Rs 15 lakh value. However, on examination, the goods were found to be chargers, USB cables, batteries, having a market value of Rs 4.8 crore. Initial Investigation revealed misdeclaration, undervaluation and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) circumvention, officials claimed.
"On February 25, based on in-house information, we intercepted one container containing a massager, Laundry Bag, Portable Lithium-Ion Battery. The declared value of the consignment was Rs 9.8 lakhs. On examination, the goods were found to be grossly undervalued especially Lithium-Ion Battery which was found as Laptop batteries of much higher value. The estimated assessable value is approximately Rs 1.4 crore with a duty liability of about Rs 70 lakhs. We had also intercepted one container having 9.9 Metric tonnes declared to contain decorative items, binoculars etc. On examination, it was found that the consignment contained night vision binoculars, Wireless Headphones & Toys. Import of Toys and Wireless Headphones is prohibited without BIS certification," the official said.
The customs officials on February 23 had intercepted a container in which Cosmetics, E-Cigarettes, LED Lights, Batteries etc were found concealed having a market value of approximately Rs 4.1 crore. The goods were mis-declared to evade higher duty.
