Customs arrest one person for duty evasion on imported Landcruiser

Kochi, Feb 6 (UNI) The Customs Department has arrested one person in Kasargod district of Kerala for allgedly tampering with the engine number of an imported Landcruiser in a bid to evade duty on it.

Customs Joint Commissioner C H Venkat Reddy said here that the Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch (SIIB) arrested Vijayan Manikkal Sankaran. He was later remanded to 14 days judicial custody by a lower court here today.

Mr Vijayan had imported the high-end Landcruiser from Dubai under the Transfer of Residence (TR) scheme. He, however, engraved a fake engine number and stuck it on top of the original number in a bid to show that the vehicle was of an older year of manufacture. Thereby, he could claim a reduced assessable value, he said.

The SIIB had earlier seized five imported Toyota Landcruiser and one Toyota Prado for misdeclaration and tempering of chassis and engine number. All these vehicles also had been imported from Dubai under the TR scheme, he said.

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