DRI unearths biggest customs duty evasion of Rs 1,450 crore
The Bangalore zonal unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has unearthed the biggest customs duty evasion by any company in India, of the order of Rs 1,450 crore. Hewlett Packard India Sales Pvt Ltd (HPISPL) has been slapped a show cause notice for this.
But HP India said it has been transparent and cooperated fully with the DRI in its investigation. “HP India refutes the DRI’s position and will challenge its claims through the judicial process,” the company said in a statement.
DRI Additional Director General R Venkataraman told that HPISPL had undervalued imported products and spares like computers, laptops,notebooks , desktops, spares etc. supplied by its overseas HP entities.
“This evasion pertains to the past five years as under law, we can take congnisance of evasion up to five years only,” Venkataraman said. Even as the case is under investigation, the company voluntarily pre-deposited Rs 79.25 crore with the government.
HPISPL is one of the companies that enjoys Accredited Client Programme (ACP), under which it has an extended green channel facility for faster clearance of imported goods, without routine customs checks and scrutiny. HPISPL imports computers, laptops,notebooks, desktops, spare parts, etc. from its parent company in the US and Singapore.
“HPISPL did not make proper and full disclosure about pricing mechanism of imported products to customs. There is a standard rate for computers in the country and HPISPL used to get a discount ranging between 44% and 83% from other HP offices. While some part of this discount was being transferred to their sub-dealers here to compete, the rest was retained by HPISPL itself. During these transactions, it would raise two invoices – one for customers and the other for its office,” Venkatraman said.
While importing computers, it did not declare these details to customs and undervalued the imported products, he added. DRI officials said this was the biggest customs evasion in the country. The previous highest was Rs 800 crore.
