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85 Smuggling in India Report 2024-25

Case 6: Misuse of noti cation bene ts in whey protein import

In September 2024, DRI uncovered a case wherein an
importer was found to be misclassifying products
such as Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC), Whey Pro-
tein Isolate (WPI), Polypass, Lipofer, and Lipocal to
unlawfully claim exemption benefits under Notifica-
th
tion No. 50/2017-Customs dated 30 June, 2017, as
amended. Investigation by DRI revealed deliberate
misdeclaration to evade customs duty. Following the
probe, ₹32 crore was recovered, and two directors of
the company were arrested for their active involve-
ment in the conspiracy to evade duty.

vi. Misdeclaration

Some unscrupulous importers resort to misdeclaration in terms of description of
imported goods, quantity, quality, specification, country of origin, end-use, etc. to
evade import duties and circumvent policy restrictions/prohibitions.

Case 7: Misdeclaration of cashew kernels

In July 2024, DRI detected a case wherein an
importer has been importing Cashew Ker-
nel(broken) from Vietnam by misdeclaring as
"Agricultural rejected nut pieces residues, and
waste (Animal feed)" under CTH 2308, by
wrongly availing COO benefits, and also under-
valuing the declared price. The estimated duty
evasion is ₹50 crore. The imported goods, i.e.
Cashew Kernels(broken), are rightly classifiable
under CTI 08013210 and are not covered under
the India-ASEAN FTA.

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