The Directorate General of Post Clearance Audit has revealed the biggest money laundering scandal in Pakistan’s history and exposed that importers cleared luxury vehicles worth billions of rupees by declaring them at mere thousands, evading billions in customs duties and taxes.
According to the 24NewsHD TV channel, the audit covered the period from December 2024 to March 2025 under the Faceless Customs Assessment System and found evidence of systematic under-invoicing in 1,335 import consignments, mostly involving luxury cars.
--Luxury vehicles declared for just thousands--
One of the most glaring examples in the audit report was the import of a 2023 Land Cruiser vehicle declared at a value of just Rs17,635.
In reality, the market value of the vehicle exceeds Rs 10 million, with due taxes and duties totalling over Rs 47 million. The audit found 99% under-invoicing in this single case alone.
--Discrepancy between declared and actual values--
According to the audit report, importers declared only Rs 670 million as the total value of 1,335 cars, while the actual value was more than Rs7,250 million.
On these cars, only Rs1.29 billion in customs duty was paid, while the actual duty and tax liability was estimated at Rs18.78 billion.
This exposes a shortfall of over Rs17 billion, indicating deliberate underreporting and tax evasion by the customs officers.
--Foreign currency trail missing--
Audit officials stated that none of the importers could produce legal foreign exchange remittance records for the purchase of the vehicles.
This raises serious suspicions of payments made through illegal channels such as hawala or hundi, a classic sign of international money laundering.
--Tax fraud and false declarations--
Beyond customs evasion, the audit reveals that importers also underreported vehicle costs in income tax returns, committing double fraud by avoiding income tax on luxury asset declarations. This has been labelled a highly organised money laundering and tax fraud scheme.
Reporter: Ashraf Khan