New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 24 lakh of an Andhra Pradesh-based trader who allegedly under-valued goods imported from China.
Some residential premises located in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh and other immovable properties of M Hari Babu, the proprietor of Bhavani Diamond Tools, have been frozen after a provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The total value of the attached properties is Rs 24.13 crore.
The ED claimed in a statement that Babu “with an intention to short-pay customs duties against goods such as ‘saw blanc and saw blade’ (imported in the name of Bhavani Diamond Tools) collaborated with representatives of overseas suppliers of China and fabricated a second set of invoices with lower value of the goods and submitted the same to the Customs at the time of import”.
It said the trader “evaded” customs duties of about Rs 2 crore due to this alleged under-valuation.
The trader, to align with lower values which were declared to the customs at the time of import, also lowered the sale price to that extent of the imported goods in the domestic market and collected the differential values in cash, the ED claimed.
“Subsequently M Hari Babu, in terms of their prior arrangement with the overseas suppliers of China, has paid the differential values (between the original value and the values declared to customs for payment of Customs duties) to the representatives of the overseas suppliers of China at Ongole, Andhra Pradesh or Chennai, Tamil Nadu in cash,” it said.
