Officials at the Chittagong Customs House has seized a consignment of 30 containers loaded with cement that was imported as plastic granules with false declarations.
PRAN Dairy Limited, a sister concern of PRAN Group, imported the consignment.
Later, Moniruzzaman Sajib, assistant customs officer of Chittagong Customs House, filed a departmental case against the company on Wednesday (Jun 12).
According to Customs sources, the company imported the cement, in 30 containers, from Dubai after it had announced to import 510 metric tons of plastic granules worth $566,000. The consignment arrived at Chittagong port on May 26 and the company submitted documents at the Customs House on that day for discharge.
When the company tried to discharge the imported goods from Customs on Jun 6, officials discovered sacks of cement after opening up one of the containers and shut down the discharge process. During a physical examination on Jun 11, a total of 510 metric tons of Jebel Ali brand cement was found from 30 containers.
Fakhrul Alam, commissioner of Chittagong Customs House, said that the incident of false declaration was detected at the time of inventory and a departmental case was lodged in this regard against the importer.
The import duty of plastic granules is 32% while the duty for cement is 91%.
Customs House usually file a departmental case in these types of cases to launch internal investigation. A regular case will be filed with concerned police station if any evidence of money laundering or other criminal offence are found," he added.