DRI detects over ₹25 crore duty evasion by luxury car importers; one arrested

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has detected customs duty evasion of over ₹25 crore by way of undervaluation by luxury car importers, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

As per DRI, high-end Luxury Cars were being imported by resorting to undervaluation to the extent of 50 per cent by mis-declaring the import value at the Indian ports to evade the applicable Customs Duties.

These luxury cars would first be transported to Dubai/Sri Lanka from the USA/Japan, for the purpose of conversion from left to right-hand drive (RHD) and other modifications, before being imported into India by mis-declaring the import value by using fabricated documents.

"In the investigation, it was ascertained that more than 30 Luxury Cars, viz models like Hummer EV, Cadillac Escalade, Rolls-Royce, Lexus, Toyota Land Cruiser & Lincoln Navigator, have been imported by using the above modus operandi. The importers involved are based in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore & Delhi with estimated duty evasion of more than ₹25 crores," the ministry said.

DRI has arrested one of the biggest importers involved in this commercial fraud, based in Hyderabad, who has imported 8 such high-end luxury cars involving customs duty evasion of more than ₹7 crore.

Other importers and actual users of the imported cars on whose behalf these cars were imported are under the scanner of DRI, the ministry added.