CBIC Suspends Licences of 56 Customs Brokers Linked with Fraudulent Exporters

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Sunday, 13 September 2020, said it has suspended licences of 56 customs brokers linked with fraudulent exporters. The Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) had carried out data analytics of customs brokers linked with fraudulent/unscrupulous exporters and the findings have resulted in suspension of licences of 56 customs brokers.

“Licences of 56 customs brokers including those of 37 from Delhi have been suspended since August 2019 till date,” the CBIC said in a statement. Upon investigation on 62 customs brokers, it was found that they had handled more than 15,290 export consignments of 1,431 untraceable exporters.

In one particular case, a customs broker has handled exports of 99 untraceable exporters who claimed Rs 121.79 crore of IGST refund. “These customs brokers’ activities were under strong suspicion for quite some time and the officials were able to block IGST refund of Rs 226 crore in these cases so far,” the CBIC said.

While licences of 56 of them have been suspended, the remaining are under further investigation. The suspended customs brokers would not be able to transact business any more. “An alert for 100 per cent examination of all import consignments have been inserted considering the likelihood of malpractice in imports as well by the doubtful customs brokers,” the CBIC added. Till mid July, there were 7,516 exporters in ‘risky exporter’ list of the CBIC.