NBR for more scrutiny of imports

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has asked all its customs stations to increase their vigilance regarding quality of imported goods, their description, HS Code, quantity measurement and declaration of duty structure.

The NBR gave the instruction as it suspects that some anomalies are being exploited to deprive the government of the actual revenue it should earn from import of goods.

Besides, the revenue collecting authority also asked its officials at all customs stations to remain alert regarding duty evasion by the C&F agents, freight-forwards and shipping agents.

Recently, NBR member Farid Uddin sent a letter to all commissioners of the customs stations in this regard.

The letter states that despite repeated warnings, many responsible persons did not give attention to the above mentioned issues and as a result "revenue collection, trade and environment are getting adversely affected".

The letter mentioned that under-invoicing and over-invoicing are great problems in the declaration of imported goods. The letter declares that it is one of the main duties of the customs stations to examine the import duty of the imported items.

Duty management has to be increased on imported items with a tariff higher than 80 percent, as in most cases the invoice price is stated lower than the imported price. The letter asked to check the price of the same item in other customs stations and take steps accordingly.

Besides, the letter also directed stern action against dishonest officials.

It also directed the customs stations to re-examine the records of the items that have been imported through the respective station in the last two or three years.

According to the NBR officials, the duty evasion incidents through under-invoicing and over-invoicing are done mainly while importing food items, sanitary items, fabrics, glass sheet, steel sheet, and electrical and electronics items.