New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS): The customs authorities in Delhi have seized Pakistan-origin consignments of dry dates routed through Oman, UAE and Iran to escape customs duty.

The importers made wrong declarations about country of origin to evade 200 per cent duty of about Rs 3 crore.

The consignments were seized at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in South Delhi's Tughlakabad area. The crooked importer has been identified and arrested.

A senior Customs official said that the importer has been found to be involved in the racket of wrongly declaring the origin of the consignment as Dubai or other Middle East countries to evade customs duty.

Following tension between India and Pakistan, the former had in February raised customs duty on imports from Pakistan.

Explaining the modus operandi adopted by some importers, the official quoted above said that importers first bring goods from Pakistan to Dubai and then on a fresh bill of lading, the same consignment is transported from there to India.

A bill of lading is a detailed list of a ship's cargo in the form of a receipt given by the master of the ship to the person consigning the goods.

This is not the first time the Customs have seized Pakistan-origin consignments. In September, the Directorate Revenue of Intelligence (DRI) had arrested four persons involved in importing 25 containers from Pakistan routed through Oman.