A court in Mumbai sentenced a customs clearing agent to two years' imprisonment in four cases of import duty evasion, while acquitting three others due to flawed investigation by the CBI.
Though the exact size of the evasion is yet to be firmed up, initial estimates indicate that the duty evasion, along with penalty and fine, could be over Rs 1,000 crore
Revenue intelligence officers have detected Rs 4,389 crore duty evasion by Chinese smartphone maker Oppo by misdeclaration of imports, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. The Chinese company deals in mobile brands -- Oppo, OnePlus and Realme. During an investigation of Oppo Mobiles India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Ltd - China (Oppo China), the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has detected Customs duty evasion of around Rs 4,389 crore.
Buckling under pressure from various quarters, the government on Monday withdrew the harsh provisions relating to excise and customs duty evasion cases. In Finance Bill 2012-13, it had earlier proposed to make certain excise and customs duty evasion cases non-bailable until the court had heard the public prosecutor.
In a relief to two-wheeler major Hero Honda Motors, a tax tribunal has ruled in favour of the company in a case filed by the Excise department for alleged duty evasion to the tune of Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million).
The probe agency is learnt to have taken possession of multiple physical and digital records during a search operation conducted on the premises of the South Korean firm in Delhi and Mumbai this week.
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi's India unit has been slapped with a Rs 653 crore notice for alleged evasion of import duty, as per an official statement. A show-cause notice has been slapped on Xiaomi India following recovery of documents during searches on its premises that indicated remittance of royalty and licence fee to US and Chinese firms under contractual obligations, the union finance ministry said on Wednesday. Replying to an email query, a Xiaomi spokesperson said, "At Xiaomi India, we give utmost importance to ensuring we comply with all Indian laws.
Actress Veena Malik, a Pakistani national and former Bigg Boss participant was detained at the Mumbai airport by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the customs on Wednesday for evasion of customs duty.
The case relates to alleged wrong classification of mixed xylene
DRI had last month issued the notice to Samsung India for allegedly evading duty worth about Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) while importing the tablets from South Korea between April 2012 and February 2013, the sources said.
DRI seized contraband worth Rs 504.39 crore.
Raheja, who was returning from London, was arrested on Wednesday night at the Mumbai International airport for evading payment of customs duty.
'We crossed Rs 1.7 trillion in three months this financial year.'
HP has been charged with underpaying customs duties while importing products and spare parts.
The government is looking to plug loopholes in the Indian customs law provision that allows tax exemptions for gifts up to Rs 5,000 and trade samples up to Rs 10,000 sent to India from abroad.
Can lead to imprisonment up to seven years.
Anil Ambani Group company has offered a bank guarantee and indemnity bond for the aircraft, but the Customs officials have that said that it is not possible without the seizure notice.
Economic offender Narendra Kumar Rastogi was on Friday extradited from the United States to India to face charges in a custom duty evasion case to the tune of Rs 54 crore for exporting scrap to various countries.
The government has hiked gold import duty to 15 per cent from 10.75 per cent to check the current account deficit (CAD) and rising import of the yellow metal. The duty changes came into effect on June 30. Earlier, the basic customs duty on gold was 7.5 per cent, now it will be 12.5 per cent.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has stepped up its watch on the import of unbranded gold jewellery amid a spurt in seizures on international borders and from importers. During FY24, the CBIC and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) jointly seized about 5 tonnes of gold, 30 per cent more than what they did in FY23. In FY23, 3.5 tonnes of gold was confiscated.
The government is beefing up enforcement against tax cheats in real estate sector, says Panagariya
A three judge bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir said the main object of Custom and Excise Acts was the recovery of excise duties and not really to punish for infringement of its provisions.
The government has sacked these officers ranging from the ranks of principal commissioner to assistant commissioner, some of whom were already under suspension.
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said despite the electronic way or E-way bill mechanism there has been rampant evasion and there is a need to increase compliance.
India should convert the Trump threat to an India opportunity, re-embracing a more liberal trade regime as a way of reviving manufacturing output and exports.
The CBEC will itself be rechristened as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and will supervise GST and Customs activities and provide the government policy inputs.
India's gross tax collections soared to a record high of Rs 27.07 lakh crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, led by impressive growth in corporate tax and customs, taking the tax-to-GDP ratio to an over two-decade high of 11.7 per cent, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Friday.
According to the NIPFP, there is the possibility that even if the banking system matures over time, some transactions could bypass the system so as not to pay the BTT.
The DRI sleuths seized the vehicle of businessman Chandan Basu during an ongoing probe into a racket of importing cars by evading custom duty upto 105 per cent
An alert has been issued by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, lead agency to check smuggling and customs duty evasion, to all international transit points across the country, official sources said.
Officials say that such a list, to be updated on a real-time basis, will serve as a ready reckoner in identifying those committing multiple economic offences
A proposal for creation of seven Customs Overseas Intelligence Network units is pending with the Ministry of External Affairs.
Six years after the rollout of the biggest indirect tax reform in India, Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue of Rs 1.5 lakh crore every month has become a new normal and tax officers are focusing on dealing with fraudsters who are adopting newer modus operandi to game the system, causing loss to the exchequer. To apprehend black sheep, who operate as syndicates and create fake entities on the basis of forged documents to claim input tax credit (ITC), tax officers have started using data analytics, artifical intelligence and machine learning aiming to curb evasion, which was over Rs 3 lakh crore since inception of GST. It was over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23. Thinktank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the most critical pending GST reform is upgradation of GST Network to prevent fake supplies and fraudulent claims of Input Tax Credit (ITC).
The banks used for the fraud include ING Vysya Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, YES Bank and DCB Bank.
Justice G Jayachandran said there is ample evidence placed before the court by the prosecution to show that these accused were involved in cheating the government by producing forged documents.
