Syndicate identified after 10yrs probe

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has identified an importer and forwarding (C&F) agent involved in importing a BMW car though Chattogram Port by submitting fake documents in 2010.

Shahidul Islam, of British-Bangladeshi origins, imported the car under the carnet facility.

Kamrul Hasan, owner of HK International, was responsible for redesigning the car from the port on behalf of the importer, PBI sources said.

The sources also said though PBI has interrogated Shahidul over phone, they could not arrest him as he's living in England.

PBI identified the syndicate while investigating a case filed with Bandar Police Station by Chattogram Customs House in 2012.

Though there are 119 such car owners, who imported vehicles using the carnet duty-free facility, submitting fake documents, this is the first time a culprit was identified, that too after 10 years of investigation.

According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the vehicles were imported using the "UN Customs Convention on the Temporary Importation of Private Road Vehicles of 1954" facility, with a duty-free privilege called Carnet de Passages, between 2008 and 2012.

According to the NBR, a total of 369 vehicles were imported under carnet till 2013, although Bangladesh was not a signatory to the treaty under which the Carnet de Passages facility is given.

Later, NBR realised this issue and took steps to stop the practice in 2013.

Before the embargo, 129 cars were shipped back to their countries of destination, 120 cars were abandoned at the port, while 119 cars stayed in the country, of which only one paid its due tax.

According to the facility, if the owners still wanted to use the cars in Bangladesh, they would have had to pay between 150 and 833 percent of the cars' value in tax.

Chattogram Customs House filed the case against Shahidul accusing him of wrongful information -- PBI sources said both addresses mentioned by him in Bangladesh and UK were fake -- and over unpaid revenues worth around Tk 3 crore.

PBI has seized the car.

The 119 posh cars, including BMWs, Land Rovers, Lexus and Jaguars, are now being used in the country dodging tax of over Tk 400 crore, according to customs documents.