Customs unearths import of vehicles on fake documents

The Pakistan Customs Appraisement, with the coordination of its Operations Wing and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), lodged a case against agents and officials of private banks for submitting fake Proceed Realisation Certificates (PRCs) and Encashment Certificates for import of old and used vehicles.

Irfan Ali, an official of the Pakistan Customs, talking to The News said that keeping in line with the directions of the Member Customs (Operations), the FBR and the Chief Collector of Customs Appraisement (South), Karachi to curb the menace of misdeclarations and submission of fake documents for the clearance of old and used vehicles under the Personal Baggage scheme, the Collectorate of Customs, Appraisement (West), Karachi tightened the controls and kept extra vigilance on the clearance of vehicles.

In this regard, the Car Group of the Collectorate was directed to scrutinise the documents submitted for the clearance of old and used vehicles. The official said that credible information was received by the Collector of Customs Appraisement (West) that some unscrupulous elements were engaged in the clearance of vehicles against the submission of fake PRCs and Encashment Certificates, and their subsequent verifications from the relevant bank.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Ministry of Commerce inserted certain legal requirements vide Appendix E of the Import Policy Order 2020 notified vide SRO, dated January 15, 2019, to be fulfilled for the import of old and used vehicles by overseas Pakistanis availing baggage and transfer of residence and gift schemes.

Irfan Ali said that as per Para 3(6) of Appendix E of the Import Policy Order 2020, “All vehicles in new and used condition to be imported under transfer of residence, personal baggage or under gift scheme, the duty and taxes shall be paid out of foreign exchange arranged by Pakistani nationals themselves or local recipient supported by bank encashment certificate showing conversion of foreign remittance to local currency, as under.

“Moreover, the remittance for the payment of duties and taxes shall originate from the account of the Pakistani national sending the vehicle from abroad; and the remittance shall either be received in the account of the Pakistani national sending the vehicle from abroad or, in case his account is non-existent or inoperative, in the account of his family.”

He added that in order to verify the veracity of the information, the selected PRCs that were submitted by the customs agents and duly verified by the relevant bank branches were again forwarded to the head office of the banks concerned to verify the contents of the verification letters.

In response thereto, the head offices of the banks concerned confirmed that the PRCs had not been issued and were fake. The above facts and preliminary inquiry into the matter has revealed that the accused importers, in connivance with the representative and proprietor of customs agents and others, involved in abetting, facilitating and associating in preparing fake PRCs and their subsequent verification letters, are involved in the clearance of vehicles on fake documents.

The relevant record — the original PRCs, the letters submitted by customs agents for verification, earlier verification replies of banks, and the verification replies of head offices of banks — were seized.

The used vehicles, including one Nissan Clipper, one Toyota Vitz, one Toyota Passo and two Suzuki Every Vans, were also seized and the market value of the seized vehicles is approximately Rs10 million.

The customs official said that the role of the bank staff with reference to the issuance and verification of the fake PRCs and Encashment Certificates, and other facilitators and abettors would be determined during the course of investigation.

An FIR has been lodged for an in-depth investigation into the matter. Efforts are being made to arrest the accused persons, including the officials of the banks involved in fraud.