AG exposes huge vehicle fraud

• Report to PAC says country losing millions

Massive frauds in the clearance of imported vehicles through Customs are depriving the state of ‘millions of rupees’, the Auditor General has told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

The Auditor General in his report has pointed out that the current manner in which vehicles are cleared through the customs and registered with the Motor Traffic Department is providing the opportunity to continue with a major fraud.

The AG’s report came after some Customs officers and wharf clerks were found to be involved in a racket of undervaluing vehicles. In a test check on 50 imported vehicles, it was found that 13 of them were fraudulently registered as trucks by paying less customs duty.

In another inspection, more than 30 cars were found to have been registered as trucks by making false declarations, the report revealed. The Auditor General has noted that on an average day, 250 to 400 vehicles are registered with the Motor Traffic Commissioner’s Department and if further checks are carried out the possibility of detecting frauds amounting to ‘millions of rupees’ cannot be ruled out.

One of the shortcomings pointed out was that at the customs the deliver copy is handed over to the wharf clerk enabling him to make any alternations fraudulently in the documents.

It was also pointed out that according to the available evidence, some vehicles had been released from the customs without making any payments or inspections and thereby it cannot be ruled out that persons are fraudulently clearing them through the customs without making any payment.

Customs Chief S.A.C.S.W. Jayatillaka told The Sunday Times that to prevent further frauds they were moving to make arrangements for the RMV to operate with Customs officials and carry out registration within the customs premises. He said one officer suspected of involvement in the fraud had been sent on compulsory leave while permits of six wharf clerks had been suspended, pending investigations.

However, Motor Traffic Commissioner B. Wijeratne said that the proposed move would be costly and his department has no plans to implement it.