Merchant charged with customs evasion

A Belizean businessman will appear in court tomorrow to answer charges for various customs offences. According to a release from the Customs and Excise Department, twenty-seven year old Jitendra Chawla, owner of J.C. Belize and the Xtra House Supermarket on Cemetery Road, has evaded custom duties, falsified declaration forms, obstructed the duties of a customs official, and imported a restricted item without a valid import permit. The charges are in relation to the importation of some one hundred and fifty sacks of Indian rice brought into the country last July. The Customs Department claims Chawla paid duties on only sixteen of the sacks. In a telephone conversation with News Five this afternoon, Chawla denied the charges, claiming that he has been importing rice, and many other products, for more than four years and all transactions have been done legally. The businessman says he has no idea which shipment of rice the Customs Department to is referring to with these charges and says the matter must be a misunderstanding. Chawla and customs officials will present their cases in Belize City Magistrate’s Court Thursday morning.