Customs penalizes cartel involved in theft

KARACHI: Pakistan Customs has penalized the cartel involved in theft and pilferage of US Army reverse cargo, a statement said on Tuesday.

Customs Adjudication has ordered recovery of evaded duty and taxes of Rs158 million from bonded carriers and clearing agents including Ports Connection Pvt Ltd, Multitrans Logistics, M/s Peerzada Services International and Ghani’s International.

Customs Adjudication has also imposed a penalty of Rs2.5 million each on the above mentioned four companies. According to the details, as reported by the Directorate General Of Transit Trade, Ghani’s International electronically filed Goods Declarations through WeBOC system at Peshawar (Torkham) on behalf of the Embassy of the United States of America for consignments consisting of US Army Reverse Cargo for transit to Karachi Port for export to Dubai.

It may be recalled that a large number of containers of the US Army, Nato, and ISAF forces were pilfered during transit from Afghanistan to Port Qasim.  An official said the pilfered goods also included hazmat waste.

The carrier of the container from Torkham to Karachi Port was Ports Connection (Pvt) Ltd. The Consulate General of USA had authorized Multitrans Logistics (Pvt) Ltd and Ghani’s International Customs (clearing agents) to take delivery, handling and clearance of the said consignments.

The directorate learnt that goods had been pilfered en route as scanning images and weighment slips of the consignments did not appear as per the description declared in the invoice and packing list.

Discrepancy was also observed between the scanning images of containers taken at  Torkham and Karachi Port as well as the weighment done at Torkham and Karachi Port. Therefore, Customs staff examined the consignment physically in the presence of representatives of M/s Multitrans International (Pvt) Ltd, M/s Peerzada Services International being the authorized representative of US Consulate General.

During examination shipper and custom seals were found intact. However, the generating sets declared in the invoice and packing list were not found in the containers.

After due deliberations and hearing both the sides, Customs Adjudication established the allegations and ordered recovery of duty and taxes of Rs158 million as well as penalty of Rs2.5 million each on Ports Connection, Multitrans Logistics, Peerzada Services International and Ghani’s International.

Sources said that some other quarters were also involved in the investigation and authorities also found evidence of their involvement in the scam; however Customs Adjudication did not establish any violation on their part.