The importer declared that the consignment contained vehicle parts such as headlights, used doors, suspension shock absorbers, tail lights, air cleaner boxes, rubber channels and steering wheels.
Instead of these used vehicle parts, the consignment contained luxury BMW, Lexus, Range Rover and Toyota cars.
The importer had divided the four luxury cars into several parts as completely knocked down (CKD) units and declared them as used vehicle parts.
The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate seized the vehicles during an operation after detecting that they had been imported by evading customs duties. Each of the vehicles is worth more than Tk 1 crore (10 million). The incident took place at Mongla Port.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) disclosed the information in a press release today, Thursday.
The customs duty evasion involving the four luxury cars was detected through a 100 per cent physical inspection, technical assistance from experts from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to examine an imported consignment.
An NBR official said, “The dutiable value of the vehicles will be determined and customs duties will be imposed accordingly. Legal action will then be taken against the importer.”
Car models and prices
According to the NBR, the four vehicles are a Range Rover Vogue, BMW 65i, Lexus LX570 and Toyota Crown Athlete.
Their estimated combined market value ranges from around Tk 4.5 crore (45 million) to Tk 6.7 crore (67 million).
According to an investigation by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate, the UK-made Range Rover Vogue is a 2017 model. Its estimated market value in Bangladesh is between Tk 1.6 crore (16 million) and Tk 1.85 crore (18.5 million).
The Japan-made Lexus LX570 is a 2016 model, with an estimated market value of Tk 2 crore (20 million) to Tk 3.5 crore (35 million) in Bangladesh.
The German-made BMW 65i is a 2010 model. Its estimated value in Bangladesh is Tk 60 lakh to Tk 90 lakh.
The Toyota Crown Athlete was manufactured in Japan and is valued at approximately Tk 3 million to Tk 4 million.
The vehicles were imported by Crown Automobile Services, based in Gandaria in the capital.
How was the fraud detected?
In July, the Khulna regional office of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate suspended the consignment containing the four vehicles after receiving information from an intelligence source.
The authorities subsequently conducted a 100 per cent physical inspection of the consignment on 19 July.
With technical assistance from expert teams from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), they identified the vehicles by analysing stickers, labels, markings and numbers attached to or engraved on different parts of the goods, as well as with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI).
The investigation found that the importer had declared the consignments as containing ordinary spare parts from old vehicles, including headlights, used doors, suspension shock absorbers, tail lights, air cleaner boxes, rubber channels and steering wheels.
However, instead of completely dismantling the vehicles into ordinary spare parts, the importer cut the complete vehicles into only three or four large sections and imported them in semi-knocked-down (SKD) or completely knocked-down (CKD) condition. The declared dutiable value was only Tk 993,547.
Although the authorities consider the incident an attempt to evade a substantial amount of customs duties and taxes, the NBR said the final amount of revenue evaded would be determined after proper valuation and assessment.
After completing its final investigation, the regional office of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate will recommend that Mongla Customs House take legal action.
Imported vehicles are subject to various duties and taxes, including import duty, regulatory duty, advance tax, VAT and supplementary duty. However, expensive vehicles with larger engine capacities attract higher supplementary duties.
Depending on engine capacity, supplementary duty on vehicles ranges from 30 per cent to 500 per cent. Importers use various methods to evade these duties on expensive vehicles.