Archives

Duty fraud of Rs. 5 million by toothpaste company detected

by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

Customs officials have uncovered a Rupees five million duty fraud by a tooth-paste manufacturing company located in Negombo, which caters to the local market.

The modus operandi behind the fraud was to obtain the release of a container of imported empty toothpaste tubes through the BOI channel even though the company is not entitled for BoI incentives including duty concessions.

Sources said the company had been given duty concessions only to import machinery and capital goods and not raw materials which include chemicals and empty toothpaste tubes on a duty free basis.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the company had attempted to import a container load of empty toothpaste tubes with lids worth Rs. 10 million through the BoI channel. But the detection was made when the representatives of the company arrived at customs to obtain the delivery.

Sources said even though the particular company had paid VAT by the time the raid was conducted, the duty defraud amounted up to Rupees five million.

Investigations continue to ascertain whether the company had brought down raw material earlier in a similar manner.

The detection was made by Assistant Customs Superintendent Wasantha Wimalaweera (OIC - Marine Division), T. Loganathan, Sri Ranjan and S.D. Dayananda under the guidance of A.M.K. Abeysinghe (Chief Asst. Preventive Officer) and A. Welikala (Chief Preventive Officer).

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager