Licences of 56 customs brokers suspended in one year: CBIC

New Delhi [India], September 13 : Licences of 56 Customs Brokers including those of 37 from Delhi have been suspended since August 2019 till date, said the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
The CBIC informed that 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 the suspension of licences of 56 customs brokers.
According to CBIC, this exercise revealed that 62 Customs Brokers (including 37 from Delhi) 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 crores in these cases so far. The matter is under further investigation. These 62 Customs Brokers were placed in 3 categories based on the extent of their linkage with the non-existent/untraceable exporters," the release said.
CBIC explained that all these suspended Customs Broker cannot transact business anymore. An alert for 100 per cent examination of all import consignments has been inserted considering the likelihood of malpractice in imports as well by the doubtful Customs Brokers.
It may be noted that Customs Brokers typically handle non-risky exporters also.
"They are governed by Section 146 of the Customs Act, 1962 and the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations (CBLR), 2018. They are under legal obligation as per Regulation 10 of CBLR to verify the correctness of IEC, GSTIN, and identity of his client and functioning of his client at the declared address by using reliable, independent, authentic documents, data or information. This requirement is violated in case of 1,431 non-traceable exporters by these Customs Brokers," read the release.