Customs out to catch duty-evading new car importers

FE Team | Published: July 07, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Doulot Akter Mala
The government has launched an investigation against importers of new cars amid widespread allegation of duty evasion.
It has been alleged that a section of importers are bringing in new cars showing lower than actual prices in the invoices thus depriving the government of a good amount of revenue.
The customs department has asked Bangladesh's embassies in the countries from where the new cars are being imported to send details on import prices.
The finance ministry earlier directed the customs department to investigate the tax evasion by car importers allegedly through under invoicing.
Accordingly, the Chittagong Customs House recently sent letters to the Bangladesh embassies in the car manufacturing countries requesting them to give the number of such new car exports and their prices as soon as possible.
However, sources said the responses, received so far, are unsatisfactory for 'unknown reasons.'
It has been found that the foreign embassies are unwilling to provide necessary information about leading car manufacturers, they said.
The authorities concerned have now decided to issue letters to the Japanese embassy in Bangladesh seeking assistance to expedite the investigation.
The customs department has been trying to find out the number of imported new cars initially.
It has failed to investigate into the matter within the 30 days deadline, set by the finance ministry, due to non-cooperation of the embassies.
The government launched the probe following allegations against a good number of car importers.
The C&F (cost and freight) prices of the government vehicles, quoted by the importers, were almost double the amount they used to quote on such imports for local sale.
Although there is an instruction to the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) companies to issue Clean Report of Finding (CRF) only after receiving manufacturers' price certificate, a section of new car importers have violated the rules through manipulation, sources said.
Some corrupt importers have been bringing in Japanese vehicles of the companies like Toyota and Honda through trading firms showing around 50 per cent lower prices than that of the vehicles imported directly from the manufacturers, they added.
In order to thwart this illegal practice, the importers of new cars have to directly import from the manufacturers against letters of credit (L/C), the sources said.
They, however, recommended that the government should make it mandatory for the importers.
The government has received some manipulated price certificates and invoices and asked the customs department to investigate the evasion of duties.
It has been found that a number of car importers have used one price certificate for all imports, while it is required for every shipment.