ISLAMABAD: A local liquor importer of branded liquor and some officials of the FBR Customs have caused a loss of Rs 400 million to the national kitty through tax evasion in the last four years by helping the importing firm to clear the consignment at the Islamabad Dry Port through sheer and gross under-invoicing.
According to documents available with Online, the Director General Intelligence and the Investigation-FBR had written a letter (C No 1 (19) DGCI/Enf-III 2013/925) to a senior official of the FBR customs stating that M/S Sun Diplomatic Bonded Warehouse, Islamabad, which had been authorised to import liquor to foreigners by the Ministry, of Commerce, had been involved in massive smuggling of liquor, using alarmingly heavy under invoicing as its modus operandi.
According to the letter, a huge quantity of liquor — Teacher, Johnny Walker Red Label, Whyte & Mackay, Hedges& Butler, High Land Queen etc which was supposed to be supplied to only foreigners, ended up in the open market of Islamabad and the “Sun Diplomatic” cashed in a huge profit from the smuggled liquor. According to the letter, for every bottle of liquor especially whiskeys authorised by the Ministry of Commerce, 11 additional bottles of every brand had been brought to the country illegally and unlawfully disposed of in the open market of Islamabad in blatant violation of the restriction imposed by the government.
The letters more shocking revelations will surface the fraud committed and the tax evaded with the connivance of the customs officials at the Dry Port once the investigation is started into the scam.
“There is overwhelming evidence on record to the effect that the officers of the customs had never made any effort to determine the correct customs value of the liquor imported by M/S Sun Diplomatic Bonded Warehouse, Islamabad, even though hundreds of consignments and the clearance of liquor were allowed at alarmingly low rates which tantamount to facilitating fraud.
This menace started acquiring a monstrous proportion in January 2010 when the import of liquid started rising significantly,” says the letter.
According to the letter, the M/S Sun Diplomatic Bonded Warehouse supplied the liquor to foreigners duty-free and also sold the same to privileged persons and in the open market on payment of duty taxes.
The letter while recommending further investigation into the scam says that “the findings of the investigation conducted so far reveal that in relation to the ridiculously low assessment of popular blended brands imported by the M/S Sun Diplomatic Bonded Warehouse, at the Islamabad Dry Port the exchequer was defrauded of more than Rs400 million rupees.
The different between the assessed and the lawfully determined customs values, in relation to various types of liquors and the fraud committed in connivance of the officials might be more than that and could rise up to Rs800 million rupees. The evidence of the fraud also establishes that the M/S Sun Diplomat Bonded Warehouse has not paid a single penny in either income tax or sales tax despite having sold the liquor at higher rates.
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