DRI detects over Rs 25 cr duty evasion by luxury car importers, arrests 1

As per DRI, high-end Luxury Cars were being imported by resorting to undervaluation to the extent of 50% by mis-declaring the import value at the Indian ports to evade the applicable Customs Duty

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has detected customs duty evasion of over Rs 25 crore by way of undervaluation by luxury car importers, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

As per DRI, high-end Luxury Cars were being imported by resorting to undervaluation to the extent of 50 per cent by mis-declaring the import value at the Indian ports to evade the applicable Customs Duties.

These luxury cars would first be transported to Dubai/Sri Lanka from the USA/Japan, for the purpose of conversion from left to right-hand drive (RHD) and other modifications, before being imported into India by mis-declaring the import value by using fabricated documents.

"In the investigation, it was ascertained that more than 30 Luxury Cars, viz models like Hummer EV, Cadillac Escalade, Rolls-Royce, Lexus, Toyota Land Cruiser & Lincoln Navigator, have been imported by using the above modus operandi. The importers involved are based in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore & Delhi with estimated duty evasion of more than Rs 25 crores," the ministry said.

DRI has arrested one of the biggest importers involved in this commercial fraud, based in Hyderabad, who has imported 8 such high-end luxury cars involving customs duty evasion of more than Rs 7 crore.

Other importers and actual users of the imported cars on whose behalf these cars were imported are under the scanner of DRI, the ministry added.