Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Major hawala racket busted

Staff Reporter

Revenue Intelligence is investigating a firm in Kozhikode

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is investigating a firm in Kozhikode on the charge of duping the Central Government of Customs duty amounting to crores of rupees on imported "medium density fibre boards" by undervaluing the price of the foreign product.

The DRI in Kochi has seized 10 international shipment containers of fibreboards imported by the private firm from a company owned by an Indian businessman in Malaysia.

Each container was found to hold fibreboards amounting to Rs.20 crores. However, the company had declared the value of the imported goods as less than Rs.4 lakhs.

The company attempted to dupe the Customs by furnishing invoices and foreign exchange transaction documents showing that the Malaysian firm had sold the product to them at Rs.4 lakhs per container, a DRI official said.

Hawala channels

However, a DRI investigation has revealed that the firm had used hawala channels to transfer the rest of the money to the Malaysian company that supplied the boards. A DRI official said one of the suspects in the case had committed suicide in Chennai recently.

The private firm in Kozhikode is suspected to have evaded duty on over 200 containers of fibreboards imported through various ports in India in the past 12 months.

Nearly 15 other firms doing business with the Kozhikode based import-export company is being investigated in connection with the racket.

The Kozhikode-based company has also large stakes in the hotel and tourism industry in Kerala. The relatives of certain powerful politicians are reported to be on the board of the company.

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