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Tax evasion amounting to crores through Benapole |
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April 23, 2000
Jessore, Apr 22 (UNB) – Incidents of tax evasion amounting to crores of taka through Benapole land port have been detected recently. Reliable sources said an organised group of customs officials, Port officials, C&F agents and transport workers at Benapole check post are carrying out this sorts of dishonest activities for long. First such incident was reported a year back when the group tried to pilfer cigarette paper worth several crore taka without declaration in an attempt to evade a huge amount of tax. Another incident was revealed recently. Source said two customs inspectors of Clearance Department seized 79 bales of cotton yarn from shed number 2 while those was being transshipped from an Indian truck to Bangladeshi truck without completing customs formalities. But later they released the goods on private arrangement. The source said with this, the government is deprived of Tk nine lakh against the yarn. Assistant Commissioner of Benapole Customs who first unearthed these kinds of ill activities told UNB that following his action, his life is under threat as a group of terrorist tried to attack him several times. Benapole Land Port, the largest land port of the country, is controlled by the Mongla Port authority. Meanwhile UNB Benapole correspondent says: While investigating the crores of taka government tax from cigarette paper last year, the customs authority unearthed another incident recently in which paper worth Tk three crore were pilfered. A reliable source said the concerned C and F agent did not make any entry of the Indian trucks and necessary papers to the Customs section against the goods imported from India and cleared those with the help of shed-in-charge directly from the shed evading the government tax. There is no document of the goods in the Benapole border customs but it was found recorded in the corresponding Indian Customs office, he said. It was known that the agent prepared false papers even forging the signs of customs officials for submitting document to the banks who seek valid documents for the payment of exporters. On August 1, 1999, Assistant Commissioner Matiur Rahman seized the cigarette paper while the agent was releasing it through four Bangladeshi trucks after transshipment from Indian trucks. A case was filed with Sarsha police but no action was taken against the accused agent owner. |