CBI books two IRS officers of Mumbai Customs in corruption case

The Central Bureau of Investigation CBI has registered two separate cases against two deputy commissioners of Mumbai Customs and two clearing agents for allegedly clearing goods without payment of proper customs dutyIt has been alleged that they committed the unfair practice by using passports of people who have lived abroad for more than two yearsThe first FIR was registered against the then deputy commissioner Dinesh Fuldiya who worked from December 2020 to August 2021 And another FIR was registered against Subhash Chandra then deputy commissioner who worked from August 2021 to July 2022 They were posted at Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House JNCH in Nhava Sheva RaigadBoth the FIRs have a common coaccused Sudhir Padekar and Ashish Kamdar They were Customs clearing agentsThe accused Dinesh Fuldiya who is presently posted as Director General of Analytics and Risk Management has made various expensespurchases in his name and payment of those purchasesexpenses were made from the account of Sudhir Padekar or through his brother Swapnil Padekars accountcredit cards on several occasionsHe has purchased a washing machine massage chair Apple headphones shoes microwave and flight ticketsSimilarly Subhash Chandra presently posted at the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence DGGI in Mumbai used the hawala channel to transfer money into the account of persons known to him and made other purchases that have been tracked and established by CBI during the preliminary investigationIn the investigation it has been found that dutiable goods were imported under the Transfer of Residence provision by the suspect private persons and the same were given Out of Charge by Dinesh Fuldiya and Subhash Chandra knowingly and dishonestly causing wrongful loss to the Govt Exchequer and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves and obtained undue advantage from such custom house agentsIt has been revealed during the investigation that the said clearing agents procure Passports from various persons who have lived abroad for more than two years and knowingly and dishonestly use the said passports for clearing consignments of household items of other ineligible personsThe purpose behind using the passports of other persons is that as per Customs provisions if a person has lived abroad for more than two years heshe can import the used household goods from abroad by claiming an exemption up to Rs 5 lakh under Transfer of Residence ProvisionThe modus operandi adopted by the said syndicate is to use the passport credentials of those persons who have lived abroad for more than two years to import goods which belong to different ineligible parties settled abroad especially in gulf countries to evade customs dutyThe passport holder knows that the clearing agent is going to use the said Passport for clearing the consignments of household items for which the Passport holder is paid Rs 15000 per consignment in lieu of the use of his passportThe said clearing agents have their accomplices in Gulf countries who take orders from various persons settled in these countries The said persons settled in Gulf countries who want to send some goodsitems to India approach the said accomplices of agentsAccordingly the said accomplices of agents in Gulf countries pass on this information to the said clearing agents in India and these clearing agents in India obtain passports of persons who have stayed in the said country from where the goods are to be dispatched Using the said Passport obtained by the clearing agents they file Baggage Declaration Form BDF by claiming exemption of the Transfer of Residence clause which exempts duty payment on the value of goods below Rs five lakh the FIR readsIt was revealed that the goods so imported are undervalued to a large extent It is further learnt that the clearing agents in India in connivance with their accomplices in gulf countries and Customs officials in India import electronic items along with other unknown goods in the guise of household itemsThe said clearing agents by adopting this practice cause loss to the government exchequer by evading duty on dutiable electronic goods and other unknown goodsThe said act of importing dutiable goods as household items and bringing other unknown goods is not possible without the connivance of Customs Officers who give out of charge to such consignments as physical examination of such consignments is mandatoryThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever