Dhaka: The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has asked all its customs stations to increase their vigilance regarding quality of imported goods, their description, HS Code, quantity measurement and declaration of duty structure.

The NBR gave the instruction as it senses that there are some anomalies being exploited to deprive the government of the actual revenue it should earn from import of goods.

Besides, the revenue collecting authority also asked its officials in all customs stations to remain alert regarding duty evasion by the C&F agents, freight-forwards and shipping agents.

Recently, NBR member Farid Uddin sent a letter to all commissioners of the customs stations in this regard.

The letter said that it has been seen that in some customs stations, evasion of duties is going on through the declaration quality of imported goods, description, HS Code, quantity and declaration duty of the duty structure.

‘You all have been requested for several times through letters, telephone calls, emails and revenue evaluation meetings,’ the letter said.

But, the letter states, many of the responsible persons are not giving proper attention to these issues. ‘As a result revenue collection, trade and environment are getting adversely affected,’ it says.

The letter mentioned that under-invoicing and over-invoicing are great problems in the declaration of imported goods. ‘It not only evades revenues or creates imbalance in trade, it also provides an avenue to siphon foreign exchange.’

The letter declares it is one of the main duties of the customs stations to examine the import duty of the imported items.

The letter also asked the customs officials to pay more attention to imported items as the cases of under-invoicing and over-invoicing are comparatively higher.

Duty management has to be increased on those imported items with a tariff higher than 80 per cent, as in most cases the invoice price is stated lower than the imported price. The letter asked to check the price of the same item in other customs stations and take steps accordingly.

Besides, the letter also directed stern action against the dishonest officials.

It also directed the customs stations to re-examine the records of the items that have been imported through the respective station in the last two or three years.

According to the NBR officials The duty evasion incidents through under-invoicing and over-invoicing are done mainly while importing food items, sanitary items, fabrics, glass sheet, steel sheet, electrical and electronics items.

A senior official of the NBR said that the Board has decided to intensify the drive against duty evasion, aiming at attaining the target that has been given in the budget for 2014-15 fiscal.

The budget for the current fiscal set an overall revenue collection target of Tk1,82,954 crore. Of the target, the NBR share is estimated at Tk1,49,720 crore, up Tk24,720 crore than the last fiscal’s. The NBR aims to collect a record Tk57,500 crore via direct taxes in fiscal 2014-15, up 34 per cent from Tk42,915 crore collected a year ago.