IT raids unearth thriving illegal import of goods through hawala channels

Income Tax (IT) Department has found that goods are being imported to the country in the name of shell entities at under-valued and/or wrongful declaration of description of goods. The IT department has carried out raids across National Capital Region, Haryana and West Bengal. The evidences found during the course of the raid reveal that the payments for such under-invoiced goods to the foreign consigners have been made through hawala channels

New Delhi: The Income Tax (IT) Department has found that traders resorting to new forms of smuggling to evade customs duty during a raid carried out across National Capital Region, Haryana and West Bengal.

In the raid that commenced on 10 October, the officials have found an importer and trader of electronics items is importing items under wrongful declaration of description of goods. They had also seized a large number of evidences indicating unrecorded transactions, unaccounted investment in properties, bogus loans taken, etc. from the trader. During the course of the search, unaccounted cash of Rs 2.75 crore has also been seized.

The modus operandi involved import of goods in the name of shell entities at under-valued and/or wrongful declaration of description of goods imported. Upon clearance at port(s), such goods have been found to be distributed throughout India by way of out-of-books cash transactions.

The illegal trade came to the attention of the officials while searching one of the containers at Kolkata Port, where the bill of lading declared the goods as ‘HDMI cables’ valued at Rs3.8 lakh. However, it was found that the actual goods imported are high value items like laptops, mobile phones etc which are valued at Rs64 crore.

The evidences found and seized during the course of the raid reveal that the payments for such under-invoiced goods to the foreign consigners have been made through hawala channels. Almost the entire business has been found to be run through such modus-operandi.

Though the value of imports declared at the port of entry by the use of such shell entities in the past 3 years is about Rs20 crore, it is estimated that the actual value during this period could be more than Rs2000 crore, given the scale of massive under-valuation detected.

The wealth, so generated, has been used for acquisition of high value immovable properties; disguising of cash introduced in the form of bogus rental income and bogus unsecured loans; and deposits in foreign bank accounts.

Further investigations are in progress.