Customs authorities have seized a truck with a consignment at Benapole land port in Jashore over an alleged attempt to smuggle chemicals out under a false declaration.
Acting on a tip-off, customs officials raided the port at about 8pm on Wednesday (11 November) and seized the truck as the consignment was being taken out of the port’s shed No. 9.
The seized truck, registration Jashore-Ta-11-6393, was carrying 25 tonnes of goods. The importer is Anindita International of Dhaka and the C&F agent Bright International. The import bill of entry number is C-77154. The consignment entered Benapole port on 8 November.
Customs sources said the goods had been declared in the papers as talcum powder. But after the consignment entered the port, preparations were under way to load it onto a truck and take it out the same day without proper assessment. Finding this suspicious, customs officials raided the shed. On checking the import papers, they began to doubt whether the goods were what had been declared.
Customs officials believe there may have been an attempt to smuggle another, valuable chemical declared as talcum powder and to evade duty. But what the goods actually are cannot be confirmed before testing, so the consignment has been seized and is being prepared for dispatch to a laboratory. Once the test report arrives, the true nature of the goods and the amount of revenue that may have been evaded will be determined.
Md Bayzid Hossain, deputy commissioner of Benapole Custom House, said they learned from a tip-off that a consignment unloaded at the port’s shed No. 9 was being loaded onto a Bangladeshi truck and taken out the same day. Officials then went to the shed and checked the import papers.
They found that a gate pass issued for a consignment that arrived on 8 November was being used to try to take a different consignment out of the port, raising fears that the goods were being removed under a false declaration.
He added that although the papers declared the goods as talcum powder, the actual goods cannot be identified without a laboratory report. Once the lab test confirms what they are, further legal action will be taken against those involved under customs law.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report