Home ›› 19 Nov 2022 ›› Front
The Chattogram Custom Bond Commissionerate has recently ordered Siam’s Superior Limited, owned by industrial conglomerate Habib Group, to deposit Tk 128.55 crore in the national treasury through challan for tax evasion.
According to sources, the company has evaded a total of Tk 96 crore in tax by violating the Bonded Warehouse Licensing Rules, for which the commissionerate on October 30 fined it Tk 32.55 crore and ordered to pay the total amount to the national treasury.
Siam’s Superior, operating in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (EPZ), is registered as a full-fledged export-oriented company with the Ctg Custom Bond Commissionerate since 1984.
The rules violations by Siam’s Superior came into light after the bond commissionerate finished an annual audit of the company recently.
The audit, covering the time period 2020-21, revealed that the company did not repatriate the foreign proceeds against the exported goods, illegally removed factory machinery and illegally imported raw materials under bond facility.
The bond commissionerate has issued the orders against the company for the offences in four separate cases, officials said.
“Siam’s Superior Ltd has evaded paying revenue to the government in multiple ways, which is a violation of custom law and are punishable offences,” Ctg Custom Bond Commissioner AKM Mahbubur Rahman told The Business Post (TBP).
“Hence, the company has been fined based on a separate complaint. At the same time orders have been issued to collect the evaded revenue along with the fines,” he said.
According to sources, the Ctg Custom Bond Commissionerate in its audit found that Siam’s Superior failed to repatriate the export proceeds against two EXPs issued by the company’s lien at One Bank’s Agrabad branch within stipulated time. The failure resulted in tax evasion of Tk 53.91 lakh by the company, for which the bond commissionerate imposed a Tk 50 lakh fine.
The audit also revealed that Siam’s Superior did not repatriate partial overdue export proceeds of $50.435 against nine EXPs and evaded Tk 55.35 lakh in tax. The company has been fined Tk 50 lakh for the offence.
In a separate order, the bond commissionerate said it found that the company had less than half machinery stated in its previous audit covering the time period of 2015-18. An inspection revealed it only had 1284 sets of machinery instead of 3506 as mentioned in the previous audit.
Further investigation revealed that the company has been lying about the sets of machineries it has since 2010 and has removed at least 2202 sets. This cost the government Tk 42.69 lakh in revenue, for which the company has been fined Tk 2 crore.
In another order, the bond commissionerate said Siam’s Superior also lied about the raw materials in its stock. As a company operating in an EPZ, Siam’s Superior is mandated to repatriate proceeds for export goods manufactured using raw materials imported under duty-free bond facility. But the commissionerate could not find any trace of export goods manufactured using such raw materials, which the commissionerate deems has been removed by the company, evading Tk 33.59 crore in revenue. For this offence, the company has been fined Tk 30 crore.
