Pakistan Customs uncovered a significant 'money laundering' operation amounting to Rs3.5 billion in Sindh's Hyderabad district, as reported by ARY News on a Monday. The revelations from official documents indicate that the HSJI company in Hyderabad managed to evade taxes amounting to Rs70 million. They imported 14,392 metric tons of raw steel bars but managed to avoid paying the required taxes by exploiting customs facilities.
The documentation further revealed that this particular company had been granted permission to import raw materials for steel bars and was supposed to pay taxes after the transformation of these materials into finished products.
However, it was observed that the Steel-Re-rolling Mills did not fulfill their tax obligations, accumulating a substantial sum of Rs700 million in unpaid taxes, despite selling the steel bars to a construction company.
Pakistan Customs authorities asserted that a total of Rs700 million in taxes had been evaded, contributing to the larger issue of Rs3.5 billion in money laundering, which included profits, tax evasion, and the original value of the steel bars.
In a separate incident, Customs intelligence had recently exposed a tax evasion scandal worth Rs140 million at Karachi Airport's Air Freight Unit (AFU). This case involved under-invoicing and counterfeit documents, resulting in a significant loss in tax revenue.
A private company allegedly committed corruption by misrepresenting the value of their consignment through under-invoicing and fake documentation at Jinnah International Airport Karachi's AFU.