Lux watch: SRK, team stopped at city airport

MUMBAI: Actor Shah Rukh Khan and five of his team members were reportedly stopped at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on their arrival from Sharjah in the early hours of Saturday.

According to the Customs officials, the actor and his team arrived at the private terminal at around 12.30am.

They were stopped by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs department after their luggage was found to contain some dutiable goods.

The Customs officials said they were carrying an Apple iWatch worth around ₹75,000 and six high-end watch winders. The AIU officers found that the total value of the dutiable goods was around ₹17.86 lakh.

Thereafter a representative of the actor’s team and the actor’s bodyguard Ravi Shankar Singh were asked to come to the Terminal T2 for payment of the leviable duty, whereas the actor and the other team members were allowed to go.

Singh, as the demand of the AIU officers, paid an amount of ₹6.8 lakh as Custom duty, which

AN APPLE IWATCH WORTH AROUND ₹75,000 AND SIX HIGH-END WATCH WINDERS FOUND

is 38.5% of the value of the goods.

It was a duty, not a penalty, clarified a senior Customs official. There is no red channel or green channel at the private terminal and hence there is no option available to the fliers of declaring dutiable goods brought by them, the officer clarified.

It is therefore also difficult to ascertain if the flyer had any intention of evading duty, hence no penalty was imposed.

HT PHOTO Shah Rukh Khan