Indian-origin businessmen get hefty fines for attempted illegal scrap metal exports to India

Two Indian-origin businessmen in South Africa have received hefty fines in separate cases for trying to illegally export containers full of scrap metals to India.

In the first of the two cases in the past week in the Durban Magistrate’s Court, Nagendra Kudupudi was fined 200,000 rands after he pleaded guilty to the charge of attempting to export five containers of scrap metal to India without the requisite permit.

Kudupudi will be required to pay the first 50,000 rands of four instalments by the end of November or risk facing five years imprisonment.

The consignment of steel scrap metal weighed 125,500kg and was valued at 369,750 rands according to Natasha Kara, the regional National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson.

She said that Kudupudi, who runs a business buying and selling scrap metal, arranged for the five containers to be prepared for export from the Port of Durban to India in February this year.

“He did this being fully aware that the cargo due for export required an application to the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) for an export permit. He was arrested after an investigation by the South African Revenue Service,” Kara told the weekly Post.

Kara said the conditions of Kudupudi’s sentence was that he pay the 200,000 rand fine and that he should not be convicted of an offence involving a contravention of the International Trade Administration Act within the next five years, failing which he would face a five-year jail sentence.

Barely a week later, Deepak Kumar Metha, another Indian-origin person, faced exactly the same charges of arranging five containers full of scrap metal for export to India from Durban without having the requisite permit.

In Metha’s case, the cargo had a value of 466,000. Metha received a heftier fine of 250,000 rands, to be paid in five instalments from November, after he too pleaded guilty to the charges.

Kara said that all the containers were transported from Johannesburg to the terminal at the Port of Durban for loading onto the ship, which was when customs authorities discovered the offences during a routine inspection.

ITAC is a regulatory body established in 2003 to oversee customs tariff investigations; trade remedies; and import and export control.