Hyderabad luxury car dealer arrested in ₹25 crore customs duty evasion fraud
Basharat Khan, one of the biggest importers involved in this commercial fraud, alone imported 8 luxury cars involving evasion of more than ₹7 crore.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a Hyderabad-based luxury car dealer, Basharat Khan, from Gujarat on Thursday for his alleged involvement in customs duty evasion fraud related to import of high-end vehicles.
The arrest came after DRI detected a customs duty evasion of more than ₹25 crore.
Khan, the owner of 'Car Lounge' showroom, as per a NDTV report, had a key role in generating undervalued receipts for luxury cars imported from abroad.
DRI officials reportedly said that in some cases, Khan reduced the value of the high-end cars by nearly 50 per cent of their actual price. He used fake documents and invoices with undervalued price to avoid paying high customs duties.
These luxury cars would first be imported from the United States or Japan and then transported to Dubai or Sri Lanka, where the vehicles would be shifted from left-hand drive to right-hand drive to suit the needs of Indian users, a news agency PTI report said. These modifications would be done before the cars get imported into India by mis-declaring the import value with the help of fabricated documents.
Over 30 luxury cars imported to India
In their investigations, officials revealed that more than 30 luxury cars of models such as the Hummer EV, Cadillac Escallade, Rolls-Royce, Lexus, Toyota Land Cruiser and Lincoln Navigator, have been imported to India under this modus operandi.
Basharat Khan, who has been 'Car Lounge' showroom for the last ten years, alone imported 8 such high-end luxury cars with customs duties evasion of more than ₹7 crore.
Khan's business partner Dr Ahmed reported helped him in this fraud by storing several of the important luxury cars at his farmhouse.
According to DRI officials, Khan's business took off after he networked with several political connections and sold luxury vehicles to them, NDTV reported. And of these, many buyers even paid Khan in cash so as to avoid taxes themselves.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Ahmedabad has sent Khan to judicial custody.
The finance ministry on Tuesday said that the DRI detected customs duty evasion, wherein importers based in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Delhi are involved in a fraud worth more than ₹25 crore.
Other importers and actual users of the imported cars on whose behalf these cars were imported are also under the DRI's scanner, the ministry added.
