New Delhi: The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has come down heavily on errant Customs Brokers and unscrupulous exporters over the last year by using data analytics and risk management tools as these Customs Brokers were processing the consignment of non-traceable, non-existent exporters and fraudulently claiming IGST refunds. Using the sophisticated tools, the CBIC's Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) detected a nexus between the fraudulent exporters and Customs Brokers and suspended the licence of 56 brokers over the last one year for violating the licence conditions, ETV Bharat has learnt.
Thirty-six of the total 56 Customs Brokers, whose licences have been suspended, belonged to Delhi. According to the people familiar with the matter, the CBIC’s investigation revealed that 62 custom brokers processed 15,290 export consignments of over 1,400 exporters who are not traceable.
“In one particular case, a Customs Broker handled exports of 99 untraceable exporters who claimed the IGST refunds worth over Rs 121 crores,” a source told ETV Bharat.
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“The activities of these brokers were under observation of the Board for some time and CBIC officials were able to block the IGST refund worth Rs 226 crores in these cases,” he told ETV Bharat.
According to the officials, these 62 Customs Brokers were placed in 3 categories according to their link with non-existent, non-traceable exporters.
An official said an alert for 100 percent examination of all import consignments of these Customs Brokers has also been sounded as there is possibility of malpractices in the import consignment processed by these brokers.
“The suspended Customs Brokers cannot transact business anymore,” said the official.
Customs Brokers violated licencing regulations
According to officials, operations of Customs Brokers are governed by the Section 146 of the Customs Act of 1962 and the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations (CBLR), 2018.
Officials say Customs Brokers are under legal obligation to verify correctness of IEC, GSTIN, and identity and functioning of their clients at the declared address by using reliable and authentic documents.
(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)
