Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that currently the amount of unpaid (due) import duty is about Tk. 760 crore 30 lakh. He said this in response to a question of Habibur Rahman in the Jatiyo Sangsad on Monday.
According to the information provided by the Finance Minister, import duty is not collected in certain areas due to various legal complications. Post-clearance audits are carried out as part of regular preventive measures after clearance of consignments and in many cases uncollected duties are unrecovered.
He said that although customs clearance has been completed, due to temporary financial crisis, import duty remains unpaid due to non-invoicing of goods. In the case of importation by government institutions, most of the time the invoice of goods is taken on the basis of late payment of duty and if the duty is not paid within the stipulated time, then the import duty of this invoice remains unpaid.
The Minister further said that action is taken to recover duty evasion through audits by Local and Revenue Audit Directorates and subsequent prosecutions of concerned custom houses or stations, resulting in arrears at the import level. Many times import duty remains unpaid due to pending cases in court due to disputes regarding import duty.
Regarding the steps taken and the success of the collection, the minister said that the procedures for collection of unpaid duty are taken by following the regulations related to collection of arrears mentioned in the Customs Act-1969. Tk. 4 crores 44 lakhs have been collected so far and the process of collecting the remaining revenue is continuing.