Customs officials seized a consignment of valuable persimmon fruit imported with ‘Sugar Apple fruits' through Benapole Port under false declaration.
Although the cargo was imported on Thursday night, the importer and C&F agent were fined under the Customs Act on Friday morning.
According to customs sources, an importing company named Prava Enterprise imported two thousand 700 kgs of Sugar Apple fruits.
But when the customs officials inspected the Sugar Apple fruits Consignment, they found valuable persimmon fruits.
Later, a large amount of duty-evated shipment was seized.
C&F agent Amena Enterprises was responsible for clearing the consignment of imported goods under false declaration.
Customs authorities seized the consignment from transshipment yard number 31 of the port last night.
Taka 8 lakh revenue was being evaded in fruits shipment.
Benapole Customs House Deputy Commissioner Rabindra Singha said, “The consignment of fruits was seized in a raid in presence of senior customs officials based on a tip-off.
Owner of Amena Enterprises, the alleged C&F agent, said, “One person from Benapole works by renting the licence. He does not know about this”.
Benapole C&F Agents Association Customs Affairs Secretary Abdul Latif said, a valuable scanning machine at the port but as it has been inoperative for almost a month. So the bad Importers are getting opportunities for irregularities within the legitimate trade.
As a result, the government is losing a huge amount of revenue.
It is learnt that in the last four months, the amount of revenue income was Tk.1 thousand 992 crore. But Tk. 1 thousand 751 crore were collected there. The revenue deficit amounts to Tk 240 crore. Importers are unable to import the goods due to dollar crisis. As a result, there is a revenue deficit.
Persimmon fruit is recognized as the national fruit of Japan.
This fruit is available in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh of India. This fruit is cultivated commercially there.
In Hindi, it is called Tendu fruit. The round seedless fruit, like tomato, is highly nutritious. The fruit is valuable and the import duty is double than that of Sugar Apple fruit.
