ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has unearthed a fraud at Karachi airport, where consignments of high-value electronic items were being cleared illegally without filing Goods Declarations (GDs) or paying customs duties and taxes.

The scam was orchestrated allegedly by some employees of a foreign ground-handling company, which was also the custodian of the goods, in collusion with some importers, allegedly involved in the use of fake and forged documents issued by the company employees to remove electronic goods from the airport.

The FBR said in a statement that the fraud came to light after credible intelligence was received and promptly acted upon by authorities to strengthen controls at the Karachi airport.

“The timely intervention led to the seizure of a consignment valued at Rs103 million, including laptops, iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, PlayStations, and memory cards, before it could be spirited away.”

Apart from this, two consignments were found fraudulently cleared on the basis of fake gate passes.

The collectorate of Customs Airport Karachi lodged two FIRs and said that five consignments in total were illegally removed through the fraudulent methods.

These consignments, packed in two pallets, weighing around 900-1,000kg each, were “deliberately concealed from the Customs WeBOC system, preventing GD filings and enabling their clearance through fake gate passes”.

The total estimated value of the evaded duty and taxes involved in illegal removal of the five consignments is stated to be at Rs384 million. “The employees of the company manipulated their computerised iCargo system to conceal airway bills for issuance of fake gate passes for illegal removal of high-value electronic goods.”

Customs investigators have also highlighted the foreign-based company’s “refusal” to provide CCTV footage and critical records despite repeated requests, raising serious suspicion of “complicity at the senior management level”.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2025