State warehouse robbed of goods worth millions of rupees
KARACHI: The Collectorate of Customs Enforcement has launched a detailed audit of all auction-related financial transactions over the past 12 months after uncovering an auction case in which an entire lot of confiscated mobile phones, tablets and accessories was fraudulently released from a state warehouse using forged payment and delivery documents.
According to the documents, this auction lot, comprising smartphones, tablets, and electronic accessories, was allegedly removed from the state warehouse in Karachi on August 26, 2025, without paying any government dues.
The department received credible information that the auction lot had been moved out of the warehouse against fake and fabricated documents, causing revenue loss to the national exchequer.
In response, the department constituted an inquiry team to investigate the matter. The inquiry team reportedly found that the lot’s case file was missing from the auction section, with no corresponding entry, acknowledgment, or movement record on file.
A search of related records subsequently produced a delivery challan bundle purporting to include a delivery order, a pass, a copy of a CNIC, a Computerized Payment Receipt (CPR-IT), and a challan. Cross-verification of these documents against official registers found that the certificate issued under Rule 72, the delivery order, the CPR-IT, and the challan were all fake and fabricated, with no matching entries in departmental records and no evidence that any competent officer had issued or authenticated them. Similarly, no record of the payment slip ID or receipt numbers was found, confirming that neither the bid amount nor the applicable income tax was ever deposited into the kitty.
The documents further alleged that the department’s own staff posted in the customs auction section engineered the scheme. The FIR names the accused person as the principal accused, who is currently an absconder. It said that the accused allegedly leaked confidential details of the auction lot to another customs staff member, who in turn connected the alleged buyer through an intermediary.
Later, the customs staff allegedly forged the computerized payment receipt and challan to make it appear that the required bid value and income tax had been paid, while separately obtaining a token pay order of Rs3 million from the buyer to push the paperwork through internal approval channels.
Once the fabricated documents were approved, they were allegedly used to secure a release order, and the goods were handed over from the state warehouse. After delivery, the buyer allegedly paid roughly Rs15 million in cash.
The documents said the revenue loss is estimated at roughly Rs.5.5 million, while the total market value of the goods ranges between approximately Rs13.4 million and Rs18.4 million. Meanwhile, a top customs official confirmed that the buyer and one customs staff member have been arrested, while efforts continue to nab the mastermind.
He said the department has already taken disciplinary action against several staff members for negligence in failing to verify the authenticity of the documents used to secure the release of the goods, admitting that the auction process currently has no online verification system, and that auctions remain a time-consuming and cumbersome process that is, so far, run manually, a gap officials acknowledge made the alleged fraud possible.
Furthermore, he said the department is now auditing all auction proceedings carried out over the past year to determine whether this was an isolated fraud or whether the accused carried out similar schemes during their entire tenure at the post.
“We have also circulated details of the case to other Collectorates across the country, advising them to review their own auction proceedings from the past year as a precaution,” he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026