A case of tax evasion of Rs 16,000 crore has come to light in importing goods from China. The customs department has sent notices to 32 Indian importers since September. Customs officials have detected this through under-invoicing from April, 2019 to December, 2020.

A senior official said that the investigation has revealed many cases of low bills, especially from China. The bill of goods exported from China to India is very high as compared to the bill of imported goods. These imported materials mainly include electronics goods, gadgets and metals.

Usually importers get invoices made by showing low value of goods to save customs duty. The government has imposed import duty on other items including electronic goods and mobile phones to encourage domestic production. To avoid this, importers evade tax from low value invoices.

According to the report of US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity-2019, India lost more than Rs 90,000 crore due to wrongful invoices and most of it is linked to imports from China.

According to intergovernmental data, India imported goods worth $79.16 billion in the first nine months of 2022. At the same time, China's General Administration of Customs showed that its exports to India during the same period were $89.99 billion.