One person has been arrested in connection with the case, and so far, “the investigation has revealed fee evasion of ₹50 crore | Photo Credit: Nisar Ahmed
Indian Customs officials have detained a Comoros-flagged ship, WIV Refah, with around 310 containers of dry fruit consignment coming from Iran’s Bandar Abbas port at Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva port on suspicion of “false declaration” regarding the origin of the consignment.
Kept in custody for almost a fortnight, following “specific information” of mis-declaration of the origin of the produce received by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Although the port of loading for all the containers has been given as Bandar Abbas, Indian authorities are interrogating the crew for more details.
A circular issued by the Customs Department’s Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) on Monday said one person has been arrested in this regard and investigation so far has revealed duty evasion of Rs 50 crore.
DRI’s letter to Customs Department
The investigation followed a letter from the DRI to the Mumbai Customs Commissioner. The consignment of dried fruits, especially walnuts, is claimed to be of Afghan origin to avail the zero import duty benefit of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). However, they are not of Afghan origin.
Using the fact that Afghanistan is landlocked, “some unscrupulous importers have devised a methodology to show” that goods are of Afghan origin, the CIU circular said.
“Under this modus operandi, forged transit documents including fake bills of lading showing movement of goods/containers from Bandar Abbas to Jebel Ali are allegedly being prepared in collusion with shippers and certain elements within the shipping lines to create a misleading chain of transit documents,” it said.
claim zero duty benefit
As a result, goods that are not of Afghan origin are loaded onto ships. After this they are sent directly to Jawaharlal Nehru Port.
On arrival at Nhava Sheva port, bills of entry are filed at the port’s customs house, claiming the preferential benefit of zero duty under SAFTA. It said the movement of goods from Bandar Abbas to Jebel Ali Port, UAE, is done with the help of country of origin (COO) certificates and forged transit documents.
DRI, in its letter to the Customs Commissioner, said that though the containers were loaded at Bandar Abbas while claiming to be of Afghan origin, they were produced elsewhere.
DRI officers boarded the ship on 1 February and recorded the statement of the ship’s owner, who said that all the containers were loaded at Bandar Abbas port and a sea cargo copy was submitted.
3 categories
DRI said that after analyzing the data it prepared three lists of the consignment. Firstly, 141 containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas, but the port of loading was shown as Jebel Ali. The second 66 containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas, and the port of loading was also Bandar Abbas. Thirdly, 106 containers were loaded at Bandar Abbas, but without any bill of entry.
The DIU circular said that in order to prove their “false claim of country of origin”, the shippers created fake transit documents and uploaded it into e-Sanchit (a computerized format for handling indirect tax documents) to create an artificial path of movement of goods from Bandar Abbas to Jebel Ali Port, whereby the goods came from Afghanistan via Iran before reaching Jebel Ali or Khor Fakkan Port, UAE.
The circular said that fabricated transit documents generally include materially defective and doubtful bills of lading, including domestic bills of lading lacking essential details such as vessel name and voyage number, draft bills of lading presented as final documents, unsigned bills of lading and bills of lading that do not bear the mandatory “shipped on board” date.
no valid document
“These deficiencies collectively indicate deliberate falsification and manipulation of shipping records to fraudulently obtain unacceptable SAFTA benefits,” it said.
Furthermore, in many cases, no valid transit documents, such as bills of lading from Bandar Abbas to Jebel Ali Port, have been uploaded into ICES’ e-archive.
The circular said details of the first phase of transit of the consignment from Bandar Abbas to Jebel Ali were missing. It asked all authorities to “enhance due diligence” and “ensure careful scrutiny of transit documentation in cases where SAFTA benefits are claimed on goods declared to be of Afghanistan origin”.
Meanwhile, an importer has approached the Mumbai High Court. On the other hand, customs officials are asking for a bank guarantee equal to the value of the imports.
Published on February 16, 2026
