A Collectorate of Customs, Sales Tax and Central Excise Custom House, Quetta investigation report has confirmed that export of petroleum products from Pakistan to Afghanistan was fictitious and on paper only.
A gang of commercial exporters of petroleum products was playing the game in connivance with some custom officials who were posted at the Chaman border during July 2002 and May 2003.
Such exercise is not possible without the connivance of the officials at the Pakistan embassy in Kabul and Consulate at Jalalabad as the exporters are required to get certification of their physical export of each shipment from them.
The report indicated that this Collectorate has conducted an inquiry regarding export of mogas (petrol) and HSD (diesel) from Pakistan to commercial importers in Afghanistan via Chaman from July 2002, to May 2003 and it has been confirmed that these exports were a complete fraud and existed only on paper.
The report has made stunning disclosure, that a gang of custom officials had been hand in glove with the so called exporters of petroleum products, and on this account, 15 custom officials, who were involved in the fraudulent exports of petrol and diesel, have been suspended and they are being investigated by the concerned agencies.
It has been confirmed by the report that scrutiny of the documents revealed irregularities in export of petroleum products to Afghanistan.
The nature of the irregularities speaks all about the story and its characters.
It said in some cases the name of consignee on arrival report (AR) does not tally with the name of consignee on the shipping bill.
Tampering and overwriting in AR form was another favourite way of cheating being adopted by the commercial exporters of petroleum products for Afghanistan.
The report added that, in some cases, the vehicles carrying mogas (petrol) have made repeated trips from Karachi to Chaman within two or three days, which of course was not physically possible.
The Collectorate of Customs, Sales Tax and Central Excise Custom House Quetta has included copies of AR forms and shipping bills, which confirm such trips.
It further said that vehicles on which the petroleum products were said to be exported were mostly registered as vehicles other than POL tankers or were not registered at all.