New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets in the form of fixed deposit worth ₹ 20.26 croresof M/s. Crystal Crop Protection P. Ltd.(M/s. CCPL)under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
Investigation under PMLA was initiated by ED on the basis of FIR registered by Central Bureau of Investigation, Gandhinagar (CBI) for commission of offence under section 120 Bread with 420 of IPC and section 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against A.K. Singh, then Joint Director, DGFT, Ahmedabad, Nand Kishore Agarwal, Ankur Agarwal, Mohit Kumar Goel, Directors of M/s. Crystal Crop Protection P. Ltd., and others for committing fraud of ₹ 20.26 Crore with the government exchequer in connivance with the concerned public servant.
M/s. CCPL purchasedduty free import authorization (DFIA) license froman exporter and used the same for claim of refund of terminal excise duty (TED) on local procurement of insecticides from M/s. Modern Papers, a Jammu based unit. The investigation revealed that the said DFIA license entitled them refund of the terminal excise duty in case of local procurement.
However, since M/s. CCPL had procured goods from Jammu based unit,and since excise duty was exempted on the said goods; M/s. CCPL was not entitled for payment and subsequent refund of TED. Moreover, M/s. CCPL had claimed refund of TED on such goods which were purchased by them prior to issuance of the advance release order by the DGFT.
Thus, by making fraudulent claims, M/s. CCPL got refund of TED to the tune of Rs. ₹ 20.26 croresfrom the DGFT, Ahmedabad. As the said refund amount has already been used by M/s. CCPL, fixed deposit to the extent of ₹20.26 crores has been provisionally attached by the ED.
