Tk 8.8 m fine attempt to evade duty of Tk 4.2 m

Staff Correspondent: Messrs NB Trading House, an importer from Bangshal, had to pay a fine of Tk 8.8million for trying to evade duty of Tk 4.2 million. Chittagong Custom House has collected around Tk 1.36 crore including excise duty and fine for the additional goods announced.
Earlier, the company imported 120 metric tons of dextrose monohydrate from China by announcing coated calcium carbonate. According to the customs, an attempt was made to evade customs duty of Tk 42.13 lakh on the consignment.
According to custom sources, Messrs NB Trading House imported 120 tons of dextrose monohydrate by decoding calcium carbonate. The consignment arrived at Chittagong port on March 16. On March 30, a bill of entry was submitted to MN Enterprise Customs, a C&F company in Agrabad Sheikh Mujib Road area of Chittagong on behalf of the importer for unloading the consignment.
However, the Audit, Investigation and Research (AIR) branch of Chittagong Customs got the idea of importing goods in a false declaration as it did not match with the business type of the importer. The AIR branch then locked the bill of entry into the Asaikuda World system to suspend the unloading of the consignment. On April 8, the consignment was opened inside the port and the AIR team examined it and found a white paper with the words ‘coded calcium carbonate’ written on it. But after opening the bag, the white polythene bag says ‘Dextrose Monohydrate’.
According to the details declared in the invoice, the duty was 7 lakh 82 thousand 733 rupees. But the estimated taxable value was 54 lakh 7 thousand rupees. Later, the importer was fined Tk 6 lakh for importing goods on false declaration.
Chittagong Customs AIR Branch Deputy Commissioner. Sharfuddin Mia told on Sunday afternoon that 100 per cent physical inspection of 4,600 sacks of goods was carried out in five containers. Physical examination has shown that the brown sacks are printed on white paper with glue and coated with calcium carbonate. But after opening the sack, dextrose monohydrate is found in the white polythene bag instead of the declared product.
According to the calculations in the invoice, an attempt was made to evade the duty of Tk 42 lakh 13 thousand. In all, a fine of Tk 88 lakh was imposed for false declaration. He said that a total of Taka 1 crore 36 lakh 99 thousand 559 has been collected from the importers including fines, fines and customs duty on physical examination products.