Rs 15-cr duty evasion case unearthed

The department of revenue intelligence has detected an anti-dumping duty evasion case worth Rs 15 crore concerning imports of Chinese hand torches.

India has imposed anti-dumping duty on Chinese torches since 2003. The duty is between Rs 25 and Rs 50 a torch depending on its size.

Officials said the department had searched the premises of a Delhi-based businessman, Mahesh Agarwal, who had started a number of firms in the names of his family members.

The businessman, who has now been arrested, had in the last two years imported 60 lakh torches, valued at around Rs 18 crore in the domestic market.

The torches were obtained by the businessman from his brother, who runs a firm in China.

"The businessman was importing the torches in semi-knocked down (SKD) condition and selling them locally after assembling them here," a department of revenue intelligence (DRI) official said. The department has confiscated torches worth Rs 1.2 crore from the businessman's godowns.

The DRI has also detected other cases of anti-dumping duty evasion, particularly in the pharma sector.

Some individual cases have already been booked.