Rs 189-cr machinery of Brahmani Steels seized for evading customs duty

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
(DRI) here has seized imported machinery worth Rs 189 crore from Brahmani Steels Limited, in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, belonging and industrialist from Karnataka, Gali Janardhana Reddy.

According to a DRI statement on Monday, Brahmani Steels has evaded customs duty on capital goods and machinery imported to Chennai port purportedly for setting up an integrated steel plant in Kadapa.

The firm sought exemption of the duty under the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCG) as per the provisions of foreign trade policy 2009-14.

Under these provisions the importer was required to install the machinery on the
factory premises within 6 months from the date of import and thereafter fulfil the required export obligation equal to eight times of the
customs duty saved, by export of goods manufactured by utilising the imported capital goods.

However, Brahmani Steels executed a bond binding
them to fulfil the said condition. In lieu of the bank guarantee, the said bond was backed by a corporate guarantee issued by Obulapuram Minding Company Pvt Ltd, the promoter of Brahmani Industries Ltd.

Violation of EPCG scheme

The investigation conducted by DRI here revealed that Brahmani Industries Ltd blatantly violated the conditions of the EPCG Scheme.

The visit to the factory premises revealed that they have not even installed the machinery imported way back in 2009 and thus no exports have been made by them even after 8 years from the date of import.