DRI busts racket involved in duty evasion in branded furniture imports

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DRI office₹have busted a racket involved in undervaluation of imports of branded luxury furniture and arrested three persons for customs duty evasion of ₹30 crore, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

Investigation conducted thus far revealed that branded luxury furniture was being directly sourced by a beneficial importer from reputed Italian and other European suppliers, and invoicing was being done in the names of shell companies based in jurisdictions such as Dubai.

In parallel, fabricated invoices were obtained through a Singapore-based intermediary in the names of dummy importe₹falsely declaring the goods as unbranded furniture at significantly undervalued rates to Customs.

Once cleared through Customs, the goods were transferred on paper to the intended beneficial owner via a local intermediary created for this purpose, while the goods were directly sent to the customer on the instructions of beneficial owner.

"Preliminary findings indicate a gross undervaluation of 70 per cent to 90 per cent of the actual transaction value, resulting in estimated customs duty evasion of approximately ₹30 crore," the statement said.

The beneficial owner, the dummy importer, and the intermediary have been found in complicity and close conspiracy for executing the whole modus operandi, and the three individuals have been arrested by DRI under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

Acting on specific intelligence, DRI officials conducted searches across multiple locations, including business premises, warehouses, offices of freight forwarders, customs brokers, and associated entities. The investigation has exposed a complex, intertwined network used for massive undervaluation and misdeclaration of branded luxury furniture operating across multiple jurisdictions, involving the use of dummy importers, local intermediaries, overseas shell entities, and fabricated invoices.

Earlier in May 2025, another such case was unearthed by DRI, exposing a similar modus operandi involving the undervaluation of luxury furniture imports, using a front company, which was controlled and managed by another entity to evade customs duties.

This case also involved duty evasion exceeding ₹20 crore, resulting in the arrest of three individuals involved.