Customs to check expensive cars for tax evasion
Customs Intelligence will scrutinise all expensive cars that have been imported in Bangladesh in the last two years for tax evasion.
Director General of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate Moinul Khan said this while briefing the media about the seizure of a Mercedes Benz from the capital’s Dhanmondi area for evading import tax. The car was imported in 2009 using false documents. No one was arrested in this connection.
Customs intelligence also requested Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to provide them with necessary documents of the cars.
DG Moinul said: “The intelligence team not only deals with smuggled gold but also any product that are imported into the country.”
The intelligence filed 277 cases against various steel product consignments that resulted in recovery of Tk432 crore. The team also recovered 25,000 cartons of cigarettes in the last three months, he added.
When asked DG Moinul said his team can only surveil the tax issue of a product. How the importer took the car out of the terminal also remains unknown.
The car seized from a house on Dhanmondi road 5 with the help of Rab 5 early yesterday was imported in the name of one Padma Oil Company Ltd Chittagong. It was shown as part of a consignment of high speed diesel oil.
The current value of the car is Tk 7 crore and this forgery caused a loss of Tk3 crore for the country. The documents used for registering the car were also found to be fake.
As none of the owner’s family members were present during the seizure, customs did not arrest anyone. According to the documents provided to the BRTA, the car belongs to a Babul Hossain who is now staying abroad.
Owner Babul paid his annual taxes regularly in time and renewed its registration every year since 2009.
