Govt alerts ports over illegal import of dates from Pakistan

Before the Pulwama attack, the duty on import of dry dates was around 30% to 50%, which increased up to 200% afterwards. The move caused a huge loss to Pakistani as well as Indian traders of dates.

The Centre recently issued an alert across all ports in the country after an investigation into the illegal import of dry dates from Pakistan via Oman found that the four accused businessmen, arrested earlier this month, had imported 40 consignments into India since February 16.

A man walks past container trucks sitting parked near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, operated by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. (Photo: Bloomberg)

Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) confirmed the development and said as the duty on dates from Pakistan was increased up to 200% on February 16, following the Pulwama attack, the accused adopted the Oman route to evade duty, causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.

“The Union finance ministry recently issued a modus operandi alert across all the ports in the country in order to prevent similar illegal import of dry dates from Pakistan. All ports will look for any such consignment that came into the country in the recent past,” said a senior DRI official.

Earlier this month, DRI Mumbai zone officials arrested Dongri resident Imran Teli; Kharghar residents Shewak Makhija and Mohandas Kataria; and Byculla resident Irfan Nursumar — for allegedly illegally importing 16 containers of more than 400 tonnes of dry dates, totally worth nearly ₹9 crore, from JNPT. The dates were seized by DRI, which also alerted its counterparts at Chennai and Gujarat ports.

Before the Pulwama attack, the duty on import of dry dates was around 30% to 50%, which increased up to 200% afterwards. The move caused a huge loss to Pakistani as well as Indian traders of dates. The accused, with the help of their Pakistani counterparts, allegedly started importing Pakistan-origin dry dates to India by wrongly declaring them as Oman’s to evade duty. While Teli, a proprietor of KBN Tradelink, earlier imported wet dates from Pakistan, Makhija is a Pakistan-origin Indian who owns a firm called Eshwar Traders, which deals in dry dates from Pakistan. Kataria is also a Pakistan-origin Indian and Nursumar is Teli’s brother-in-law. “Probe revealed Makhija and Kataria used their relatives in Pakistan and Nursumar’s network to route Pakistani dry dates to India via Oman. Nursumar was in regular touch with Pakistani traders after the February decision,” said a DRI official. Teli’s firm and his import-export code was used for the deal, the official added.

The DRI has also identified a Pakistani national who is handling the operations of the racket and illegally routes dry dates into India through an Oman-based firm called Anwar Al-Sharqia Al-Haditha LLC. Officials said that further investigation is on.

The arrested accused had sought bail and levelled allegations against DRI officials. However, the court has rejected their bail pleas.