Marine firm pays up after DRI rap

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Jamnagar, on Wednesday detected evasion of customs duty by a Mumbai-based marine company. The company is said to have accepted its mistake and paid the duty immediately. Interestingly, the evasion of duty which was detected on Wednesday took place two years back when the company had imported a machine for its operations at Sikka port in Jamnagar.

Sources said that, a day earlier, DRI officials in Jamnagar had seized a barge of the company (identified as Samson Maritime Ltd) after they found that the company had dodged customs officials two years back.

The company which offers various underwater services, including repair and maintenance of merchant vessels and offshore oil field contractors among others, had bought a machine ('plotting platform') that it claimed was a barge used to transport goods from the shore to the ships.

Sources said that no customs duty is charged on import of barges. The company had claimed that the plotting platform was a barge only to avoid customs duty.

Sources in the DRI said that on the basis of specific information, officials had detected the 'mis-declaration' made by the company two years back about the plotting platform. The value of the machine is Rs5 crore for which Rs50 lakh had to be paid as customs duty. Sources said that after the seizure by the DRI, the company, which is run by a couple of board members, had paid the duty immediately.