Customs intelligence to plug holes in car import
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Doulot Akter Mala
Customs intelligence has decided to launch a drive to detect brand new cars brought in under the guise of reconditioned vehicles by importers making false declaration to evade tax, an official said.
Under the move, around 2000 cars imported from Japan over the last three months (March-May, 2010) will come under intelligence scanner, he said.
The customs intelligence and investigation department (CIID) has identified a section of importers brought in new cars declaring them as reconditioned one by tampering its plying time and age limit, he added.
Cars, restricted for import, can enter the country by tampering certificates, the official said.
Under the existing provision, reconditioned car importers enjoy a total of 40 per cent depreciation on import of car. A car will be treated as reconditioned after plying 1000 kilometres before export or expiry of 356 days after cancellation of registration.
"We have learnt through secret sources that some importers have evaded duty of new cars by raising running time in the certificates to be treated as reconditioned," said Syed Musfiqur Rahman, director of customs intelligence.
The customs intelligence will send a team next month to investigate the matter, he said.
The intelligence wing has sought Registration Cancellation Certificate (RCC) and JAAI (Japan Auto Appraisal Institute) certificate of the last three months to conduct the investigation, the official said.
The customs intelligence has asked the authority to keep the original RCC and JAAI in customs house to check tampering of the certificates, he said.
In the backdrop, Chittagong Customs House (import) has made the submission of original certificate mandatory, he added.
Earlier, importers used to place a copy of those certificates at the customs house while original one in BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) at the time of registration.
"We have made submission of original certificates mandatory at the customs house to find out false declaration," said a senior customs official.
The customs house has sent a letter requesting BRTA to accept the attested copy of the certificates to help revenue board check duty evasion on import of car, he said.
The government has levied heavy tax on import of car, he said.
A 1500 cc car priced around 0.7 million has to pay same amount of duty, he added.
"Latest model cars have to pay 300-500 per cent duty. It is one of the major revenue earning sectors of the government," he said.
Achieving target of customs duty largely depends on car import.
Customs intelligence has decided to launch a drive to detect brand new cars brought in under the guise of reconditioned vehicles by importers making false declaration to evade tax, an official said.
Under the move, around 2000 cars imported from Japan over the last three months (March-May, 2010) will come under intelligence scanner, he said.
The customs intelligence and investigation department (CIID) has identified a section of importers brought in new cars declaring them as reconditioned one by tampering its plying time and age limit, he added.
Cars, restricted for import, can enter the country by tampering certificates, the official said.
Under the existing provision, reconditioned car importers enjoy a total of 40 per cent depreciation on import of car. A car will be treated as reconditioned after plying 1000 kilometres before export or expiry of 356 days after cancellation of registration.
"We have learnt through secret sources that some importers have evaded duty of new cars by raising running time in the certificates to be treated as reconditioned," said Syed Musfiqur Rahman, director of customs intelligence.
The customs intelligence will send a team next month to investigate the matter, he said.
The intelligence wing has sought Registration Cancellation Certificate (RCC) and JAAI (Japan Auto Appraisal Institute) certificate of the last three months to conduct the investigation, the official said.
The customs intelligence has asked the authority to keep the original RCC and JAAI in customs house to check tampering of the certificates, he said.
In the backdrop, Chittagong Customs House (import) has made the submission of original certificate mandatory, he added.
Earlier, importers used to place a copy of those certificates at the customs house while original one in BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) at the time of registration.
"We have made submission of original certificates mandatory at the customs house to find out false declaration," said a senior customs official.
The customs house has sent a letter requesting BRTA to accept the attested copy of the certificates to help revenue board check duty evasion on import of car, he said.
The government has levied heavy tax on import of car, he said.
A 1500 cc car priced around 0.7 million has to pay same amount of duty, he added.
"Latest model cars have to pay 300-500 per cent duty. It is one of the major revenue earning sectors of the government," he said.
Achieving target of customs duty largely depends on car import.