Ahmedabad: The investigations by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) into the last week's seizure of chaton and glass beads has revealed that crores of customs duty is being evaded by importers in various parts of country by undermining the value of imported goods and at the same time, huge amount of money is being sent through hawala to China.

Last week, the Jamnagar unit of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized 19 tonnes of chaton and glass beads worth Rs 1.9 crore from two premises in Rajkot belonging to Dhirubhai.

   The duty evasion was about Rs 60 lakh as chaton and glass beads attract around 28% duty.

Upon questioning, Dhirubhai told DRI that he had purchased these glass chatons from China and given a contract to an agent in Mumbai to smuggle them through Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai. The chatons were imported by concealing in normal goods containers for onward delivery to him in Rajkot when it was detected.


Further investigation revealed that in the last one year, Dhirubhai had illegally imported over Rs 20 crore worth of chaton and glass beads thereby evading duty of more than Rs 6 crore.


Explaining the modus operandi, a DRI official said, "In case of the Rajkot seizure, in the bill of entries chatons were mentioned as Rs 160 per kg whereas the actual cost was Rs 600 per kg. The difference amount was paid by Dhirubhai to men of Chinese suppliers in cash. This cash was then sent to China through hawala."

Source:timesofindia.indiatimes.com