I've often said that Pakistan should be re-named Corruptistan. The latest scandal involving massive over-invoicing in the import of solar panels proves that honest Pakistanis are a dying breed.
Normally, it is under-invoicing of imported goods that can enrich the businessman as well as the Customs personnel helping him. Imported goods costing, say, a hundred thousand dollars are under-invoiced to show the value as twenty or thirty thousand dollars, and the duties and taxes paid are charged on the under-invoiced value. The importer saves at least thirty thousand dollars this way. The balance seventy or eighty thousand dollars are remitted to the foreign supplier via unofficial channel (havala). This has been going on for a long time.
Now the importer has found a new way to make money. He imports goods on which there is zero duty and taxes. Ten thousand dollars worth of imported goods is over-invoiced as thirty thousand dollars. The excess money remitted to the foreign supplier is treated as advance money for other under-invoiced goods. If the actual value is thirty thousand dollars, the invoice value is shown as five thousand and the duty and taxes paid accordingly.
This is what happened in the import of solar panels in which the government was deprived of a hundred and ten billion rupees. Truly Pakistanis are very creative when cheating their government.
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