FBR takes action against over, under invoicing

June 14, 2019: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi on Friday directed for identifying misinvoicing in export declarations to ascertain the suspected items or sectors as well as destinations for such misdeclaration.

The directive also aim to categorize exporters on the basis of risk profiling by segregating compliant exporters from those engaged in misinvoicing, a FBR statement said.

It said accordingly the Customs Operations Wing had tasked the Director General Customs Valuation to submit a report in this regard.

It has been further directed to develop a risk based system to intercept this trend without compromising export facilitation, the statement said adding that punitive action would be taken against unscrupulous exporters under the proposed Section 32C of the Customs Act 1969 and the allied laws.

This initiative has arisen in the backdrop of reports indicating misinvoicing in exports, which included under-invoicing resulting in loss of remittance of forex and over-invoicing used to transfer excessive funds abroad.

Misinvoicing could possibly also be used as a mechanism for trade-based money laundering.

One of the suspected methods used in under-invoicing in exports, it said,  was through the medium of via port cargo, added that export cargoes were misdeclared by under-invoicing the values of export commodities, and shipped via port wherein new declaration with actual values are re-shipped for a final destination.

As a consequence, lesser amount of foreign exchange was remitted to Pakistan and a major portion of export proceeds was retained in the other country, the statement added.

APP/AFP