Delhi crime: Customs seizes 2,800 kg of cosmetics

The officials said that while the customs duty for goods from most countries is 10-15%, the duty fee for goods sent from Pakistan is 200% which the smugglers, who are yet to be identified, tried to avoid

The Delhi Customs on Monday seized around 2,800 kg of cosmetic items from Pakistan, which were routed through Abu Dhabi and shown as household items to avoid customs duty to the tune of around ₹1 crore.

Delhi Customs officials in charge of the investigation said that they are now trying to identify the persons who were to collect these onsignments from the delivery addresses. (Representative photo)

The officials said that while the customs duty for goods from most countries is 10-15%, the duty fee for goods sent from Pakistan is 200% which the smugglers, who are yet to be identified, tried to avoid.

Custom officials said that the intelligence officers of the Air Cargo Export Commissionerate received a tip off on Monday about a consignment at the New Courier Terminal, following which officials found at least 2,800 kg of cosmetic products of Pakistan origin.

“A total of 87 consignments had arrived by flight from Abu Dabhi. Upon examination, 84 consignments were found to contain cosmetics of Pakistan origin, and three consignments were of perfumes concentrate from Bahrain... The goods were attempted to be cleared through courier mode by wrongly declaring the origin and description of goods, including their value, to evade the applicable customs duty of 200% and IGST (integrated goods and service tax). The duty that they sought to evade is more than ₹1 crore. Interestingly, the smugglers used names and addresses of 87 individual recipients which appear to be ghost recipients,” said Sanjay Bansal, Commissioner of Customs, ACC (export).

Officials in charge of the investigation said that they are now trying to identify the persons who were to collect these consignments from the delivery addresses.

“Since the products are the same and were part of the same consignment, we suspect that it was the work of the same gang. They have got these addresses to receive the packages separately to avoid suspicion. We are trying to identify the module,” said an officer aware of the investigation details.