EC team in Bangladesh to check forgeries in apparel documents
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Jasim Khan
A high profile anti-fraud team from European Commission (EC) is now in Dhaka to counter-check thousands of suspected apparel export documents they seized in different European countries by which importers evaded duty worth 30 million euro.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) members will visit the National Board of Revenue, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and several individual export organisations in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The OLAF investigations found several thousands of third-country shipments in which forged documents were used showing Bangladesh as their origin to avail the generalised system of preference (GSP) facility.
The OLAF team in a letter to the EPB said that the scale of the problem was much larger than originally thought, involving hundreds of importers spread across the EU for which the investigation needed to be continued.
The EU countries started recovering the evaded amounts from concerned importers and prosecuting them with the assistance of OLAF and Bangladesh authorities, it said.
"Investigations, with the help of the competent Bangladeshi authorities and national customs services in EU countries, ascertained the real origin of the textiles, and customs authorities in almost all EU countries started proceedings to recover around €30 million in customs duties and also started prosecuting the importers," a statement published on the OLAF homepage said.
OLAF officers have given evidence in legal proceedings in several countries and enquiries are going on at both EU and national level.
The OLAF statement said EU importers began circumventing the relevant rules by falsely claiming that their textiles originated from Bangladesh, and also by using false or incorrect Bangladeshi certificates of origin since stoppage of quota facility to China.
Following research and cooperation from several EU countries, OLAF contacted the Bangladesh authorities to check the authenticity of hundreds of thousands of certificates submitted to customs authorities in the EU. It soon became clear that most certificates were fake.
In 2004 the EU lifted quotas on textile imports from China. By mid-2005, however, the EU market had been flooded with cheap Chinese imports and quotas were re-introduced.
Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Vice Chairman Shuvashis Bashu said the team will investigate the authenticity and validity of the documents they seized on suspicion.
"As the OLAF is finding large numbers of forged documents, they will continue checking and the government will provide all cooperation to the team so that the country's export to the large destination is not affected," the EPB vice chairman said. OLAF's responsibilities include protecting the European Union's (EU) financial interests through conducting investigation into fraud, corruption and any other irregularities besides misconduct within the EU institutions.
The European Commission under the GSP offers lower tariffs or duty-free access of imports from 178 developing countries and territories, including Bangladesh, into the EU markets.
The OLAF team that arrived in Dhaka Tuesday was also trying to identify how a third country's people used Bangladesh quota of GSP certificates.
The team will leave Dhaka on June 07, after their investigation.
The EPB from January 1, 2008 launched a new type of GSP certificate, security seal and stringent policy of distribution but all initiatives proved futile against third-country export.
A high profile anti-fraud team from European Commission (EC) is now in Dhaka to counter-check thousands of suspected apparel export documents they seized in different European countries by which importers evaded duty worth 30 million euro.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) members will visit the National Board of Revenue, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and several individual export organisations in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The OLAF investigations found several thousands of third-country shipments in which forged documents were used showing Bangladesh as their origin to avail the generalised system of preference (GSP) facility.
The OLAF team in a letter to the EPB said that the scale of the problem was much larger than originally thought, involving hundreds of importers spread across the EU for which the investigation needed to be continued.
The EU countries started recovering the evaded amounts from concerned importers and prosecuting them with the assistance of OLAF and Bangladesh authorities, it said.
"Investigations, with the help of the competent Bangladeshi authorities and national customs services in EU countries, ascertained the real origin of the textiles, and customs authorities in almost all EU countries started proceedings to recover around €30 million in customs duties and also started prosecuting the importers," a statement published on the OLAF homepage said.
OLAF officers have given evidence in legal proceedings in several countries and enquiries are going on at both EU and national level.
The OLAF statement said EU importers began circumventing the relevant rules by falsely claiming that their textiles originated from Bangladesh, and also by using false or incorrect Bangladeshi certificates of origin since stoppage of quota facility to China.
Following research and cooperation from several EU countries, OLAF contacted the Bangladesh authorities to check the authenticity of hundreds of thousands of certificates submitted to customs authorities in the EU. It soon became clear that most certificates were fake.
In 2004 the EU lifted quotas on textile imports from China. By mid-2005, however, the EU market had been flooded with cheap Chinese imports and quotas were re-introduced.
Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Vice Chairman Shuvashis Bashu said the team will investigate the authenticity and validity of the documents they seized on suspicion.
"As the OLAF is finding large numbers of forged documents, they will continue checking and the government will provide all cooperation to the team so that the country's export to the large destination is not affected," the EPB vice chairman said. OLAF's responsibilities include protecting the European Union's (EU) financial interests through conducting investigation into fraud, corruption and any other irregularities besides misconduct within the EU institutions.
The European Commission under the GSP offers lower tariffs or duty-free access of imports from 178 developing countries and territories, including Bangladesh, into the EU markets.
The OLAF team that arrived in Dhaka Tuesday was also trying to identify how a third country's people used Bangladesh quota of GSP certificates.
The team will leave Dhaka on June 07, after their investigation.
The EPB from January 1, 2008 launched a new type of GSP certificate, security seal and stringent policy of distribution but all initiatives proved futile against third-country export.