Two Customs officers held in corruption cases
Two Indian Revenue Service officers have been arrested for allegedly clearing goods of ineligible people without charging customs duty, using passports of people who had lived abroad for more than two years. The exemptions are granted under the Transfer of Residence provision for importing used household articles. The officers were accused of conspiring with two persons, one of them being a customs clearing agent, for clearing dutiable goods without payment of customs duty for ineligible people.
Mumbai: Two Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers have been arrested for allegedly clearing goods of ineligible people without charging Customs duty by using passports of people, who had lived abroad for more than two years, which made them eligible for availing exemptions of up to ₹5 lakh. The exemptions are granted under the Transfer of Residence provision for importing used household articles.
The accused – identified as Subhash Chandra and Dinesh Fuldiya – were arrested on Monday in two separate corruption cases. The officers were accused of conspiring with two persons, one of them being a Customs clearing agent, for clearing dutiable goods without payment of customs duty for ineligible people.
While one of the CBI FIRs had named Chandra, then deputy commissioner who worked at UB Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House (JNCH) in Nhava Sheva from August 2021 to July 2022, the other named the then deputy commissioner Fuldiya, who worked there from December 2020 to August 2021. Both the FIRs also named Customs clearing agents Ashish Kamdar, and Sudhir Padekar as the co-accused.
“The public servants entered into a conspiracy with others at different times during their posting at UB Centre, JNCH and misused the Transfer of Residence provision under the Customs Act,” a CBI officer said on Tuesday. “In furtherance of the conspiracy, dutiable goods were imported under the Transfer of Residence provision by the suspect private persons and the same were given out of charge by the public servant/s knowingly and dishonestly, causing wrongful loss to the exchequer and wrongful gain to themselves.”
“The syndicate used passports of various persons, who had stayed abroad for more than two years, especially in Gulf countries, to import household items, electronics and other unknown items by firstly undervaluing the goods and further concealing some other undeclared items along with the other declared items,” the official said.
The accused officers were also allegedly collecting illegal gratification through private person/s from different clearing agents and the illegal gratification was routed to different accounts and persons known to them, both through banking and hawala channels, the CBI official said.
Under the Transfer of Residence provision, a person who has lived abroad for more than two years can import used household goods from abroad by availing of an exemption. According to the CBI, the accused allegedly paid ₹15,000 per consignment to such passport holders.
The CBI has also carried out searches at seven places including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Patna and Samastipur (Bihar), Khargon District (Madhya Pradesh) at the premises of the accused and their accomplices which led to the recovery of various incriminating documents/articles, the agency official said.