India’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has asked customs officials to introduce new systems to ensure that customs valuations of imported items correspond with global market values of those items.

The board says it particularly wants to correctly value imported items that are routinely undervalued or under-invoiced for tax evasion purposes.

New modus operandi

Under the new decision, the directorate of General Customs Valuation will provide the FBR with lists of items subject to frequently changing values.

The FBR will then select items with values that have been frequently changed by customs’ own procedures as well as items with volatile market values.

Customs officials will then be required to check whether the values of these items are going up or down in line with international prices.

Capacity building

The FBR acknowledges that customs officials are not always aware of which imported items tend to be used in tax evasion schemes using undervaluation or under-invoicing typologies.

The FBR has therefore asked customs officials to notify the board of training or capacity building measures that will be needed by customs officers to identify items commonly used in undervaluation or under-invoicing schemes.