Meghna Petroleum Limited, a state-owned petroleum product marketing corporation, has evaded revenue worth over Tk 28 crore by concealing the real price in letter of credit (LC) during imports.
During the submission of 31 bills of entry to the customs house from 2020 to 2022, the company evaded revenue by showing the declared value lower than that of LC.
Customs House, Chattogram has recently revealed the information in a report sent to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
According to the report, the importing company, Meghna Petroleum, cleared the imported furnace oil from June 11, 2020 to May 18, 2022 declaring the price lower than that LC through internal post-clearance audit (PCA).
The customs house found embezzlement of the 31 bills of entry by analysing the information stored in the ASYCUDA World system.
Besides on 21 April 2022, as per LC, (Bill of Entry No 734015, LC No 9322010220), the price of furnace oil was $668 per tonne but the price of furnace oil was shown $419.33 a tonne at the time of filing the bill of entry, the report reads.
Accordingly, per tonne of furnace oil was shown less than $248.67. According to the calculation made by the customs house, Tk 3,66,14,534.10 has been evaded in this one bill of entry. Earlier, Tk 25,18,32,801.50 was unpaid in a total of 31 such bills of entry, it said.
“By verifying respective LCs in the Asycuda World system, it is found that the consignments have been declared undervalued despite LC value being higher, Which is contrary to the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value for Imported Goods) Rules, 2000,” it added.
According to customs house sources, a show-cause notice was issued to importer Meghna Petroleum for payment of uncollected revenue. The date on hearing was fixed after receiving the reply from Meghna Petroleum.
A representative of Meghna Petroleum appearing in the hearing reiterated the written reply. After reviewing the statement of the representative and all documents, the customs house issued a claim and demand letter as per the law and rules, but money has not yet been paid, sources say.
According to the SRO, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected import revenue on $265 minimum price of furnace oil per tonne. However, the customs authorities also assessed the invoice of fuel imports and if the price of fuel is higher in the international market.
Duty will be determined by collecting information about the price from internationally recognised price data sources.
Seeking anonymity, a NBR senior official said that action will be taken according to the customs law.
In that case, any goods owned by the importer can be stopped from being cleared from the seaports, airports or any other customs stations until clearing the payments or a sending a notice to freeze bank accounts in the scheduled banks as per the law.
Despite repeated attempts, Meghna Petroleum Limited Managing Director Md Saleh Iqbal could not be reached for his comment in this regard.
However, company secretary Reza Md Riazuddin said, “I do not know about customs duty and import clearances.”
