Austria Customs Officials Unveil Fraud Cases Using Chinese Products

Austria economic daily 22 reported that in April 2007, Austria customs inspectors found a container containing textiles and shoes originating from China during a routine inspection. The invoice value of the goods was much lower than the actual value of the goods.

The inspectors suspect that this is a case of large-scale smuggling and tax evasion by using certificate of origin.

Austrian inspectors found 10 identical containers, together with two colleagues in the European Union's anti fraud department in Austria.

Containers are loaded with jeans, T-Shirts, sports shoes and casual shoes.

In order to evade taxes, the value of goods is much lower.

According to information from the Austrian Ministry of finance, a total of 6000 tickets are involved.

According to people familiar with the matter, during the investigation, many of these goods have already crossed Austria into other countries.

All cases verified need to be filled in tax.

These organized criminal groups use various small freight agents to clear customs.

There are many old customers with criminal record.

A staff member of a Austria freight forwarding company is facing financial charges.

Some of these Chinese goods have already entered the cheap stores in Austria, while others have been shipped to other European Union countries.

The inspectors noted that individual containers were shipped to Slovakia from Austria customs warehouse, then shipped from Slovakia to Czech and shipped back to Austria from Czech.

The purpose of such phipment is to escape leakage.

So far, it can be determined that about 60 thousand tons of such cheap Chinese textiles and shoes enter the European Union through such illegal means, resulting in a tariff loss of about 200 million euros.

Austrian finance minister Wilhelm Molterer is very satisfied with the survey results, saying that this is a serious blow to organized crime.