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DRI officers have busted a racket involved in undervaluation of imports of branded luxury furniture and arrested three persons for customs duty evasion of Rs 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 importers 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 7
In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday held that the provision of anticipatory bail is applicable to the Goods and Services Act and customs law and persons can move courts for pre-arrest bail even if an FIR is not in place. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi had reserved the verdict on May 16, last year on a batch of pleas challenging the penal provisions in the Customs Act, the GST Act as being non compatible with the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC and the Constitution. Pronouncing the verdict, the CJI said the provisions of CrPC and the subsequent law, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), on issues like anticipatory bail would be applicable to persons under the Customs and the GST Acts. It held that persons facing possible arrest under the GST and Customs Acts are entitled to seek anticipatory bail, even before an FIR is registered. The detailed judgement is awaited. The lead petition was filed by on
Customs and DRI officers have seized 847 kg of gold worth Rs 544 crore at various airports in the three months of the current fiscal till June, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman gave details of gold seizure cases at airports and seaports by Customs field formations and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) from FY 2021-22 to FY 2024-25. In FY25, up to June 2024, 847.43 kg of gold was seized in 1,282 cases. The value of seized gold is Rs 543.61 crore. In the 2023-24 fiscal, there were 5,962 cases of seizure at airports with 3,714 kg of gold worth Rs 2,081 crore getting seized. In 2022-23, seizure of 2,776 kg of gold worth Rs 1,382 crore was made. In 2021-22, about 1,240 kg of gold worth Rs 572 crore was seized at the airports. The minister said Customs field formations are regularly sensitised to newer methods of smuggling. "On detection of gold smuggling cases, action is taken in accordance wi
The Indian and Hong Kong Customs have unearthed a major case of Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML) involving Hong Kong-based exporters and Indian importers located in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the finance ministry said on Friday. In an exemplary case of bilateral cooperation and exchange of information, this crackdown showcases investigation and enforcement actions taken by both administrations under their respective laws to expose an international cartel. DRI had unearthed a case of Trade-Based Money Laundering from a SEZ, wherein cheap synthetic diamonds were being imported into India in the guise of natural diamonds, to remit foreign currency out of India. Investigations revealed that cheap synthetic diamonds were being mis-declared as natural diamonds and overvalued more than 100 times and being imported from firms based in Hong Kong to SEZ in India. During the investigation, it was also observed that some real diamonds were imported but replaced with synthetic diamonds a