The Customs Department in the city detained goods worth ₹69 crore and unearthed a fraud to the tune of ₹12.5 crore. This was disclosed by the Customs officials here on Friday.

As per a release from the department, Vizag Customs had gathered intelligence that certain exporters, mostly new registrants from Surat, New Delhi and West Bengal, were attempting to export low quality goods by declaring them as high value products to get undue export benefits like IGST refunds.

A discreet watch was kept and 33 consignments belonging to 11 exporters were detained. It was revealed that goods such as wallpapers, adhesive films, ceramic tiles and capacitors were declared at more than 3 to 4 times than the market value. Goods including leather jackets and tiles were found to be used and old, but were declared as new.

According to Dr. K. Srinivas, Principal Commissioner of Customs, investigation also revealed that the companies appeared to be bogus front companies.