Diamond consignments seized in Surat for wrong disclosure of weight

The actual value is yet to be declared, but the officials estimate its worth to be hundreds of crores.

All six members visited SDB at Khajod and met with the diamond industry representatives and those associated with SDB. (Representative Image)

Surat unit of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs and Central Excise department officials of Surat on Sunday seized two consignments of Universal Diamonds from the Surat Special Economic Zone for wrongful disclosure of weight.

The actual value is yet to be declared, but the officials estimate its worth to be hundreds of crores.

The consignments were supposed to be sent to Mumbai airport and from there to Hong Kong. All the diamonds seized were in loose form.

Officials said that the owner of Universal Diamonds, Meet Kachhadiya, had declared the weight of one consignment as 12,000 carats but afterwards it was found to be 26,000 carats, while the declared weight of another consignment was 20,000 carats, while the actual weight was 27,000 carats.

Moreover, the company declared the diamonds to be lab grown, but in actual they were all natural diamonds. On Monday, the officials have sealed the company. Search was also carried out at the house of Kachhadiya.

Firms having units in the SEZ import raw materials and export the finished products accordingly, but they cannot sell them in local domestic markets.

The major benefit for establishing unit at SEZ is that they are exempted from all taxes.

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Sources in the agencies said that the firm started in Sachin SEZ in the month of February 2021. The officials examined the details of the firm and found that till date the firm had exported 25 such consignments while majority of the consignment landed in Hong Kong.

The officials said that Kachhadiya violated rules by declaring the weight wrongfully.

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