Bangla Food and Beverage Ltd tried to export one tonne of foods in place of 22 tonnes declared to claim higher cash incentives from the government against foreign sales, said the Chattogram Customs House.

The exporter claimed $100,000 as export proceeds from the shipment. The customs said the shipment's value would be much lower.

"We have seized the container. We have also filed money laundering and criminal cases against the company," said Rezaul Karim, assistant commissioner of the Customs.

The export consignments were supposed to contain 545 boxes of food items, including puffed rice, biscuits, tomato crackers and spices but the customs found it to be almost empty, he said.

The official said the company would have got an incentive of around Tk 8.5 lakh had it been successful in shipping the container.

The exporter also would have received the opportunity to launder the black money equal to the amount of inflated figure shown in the export documents, he added.

According to customs documents, two consignments were being taken to the port jetty from the private depot -- Eastern Logistics -- on Tuesday night for shipping.

Earlier, the weight scale officials and the concerned customs officials certified that the amounts were correct.

Clearing and forwarding agent R Islam Agency brought the two containers of goods to Eastern Logistics Depot in Patenga on December 21.

Custom officials are investigating the export of Tk 24 crore through 48 consignments that Bangla Food and Beverage shipped between January 2019 and December 2020.

Most of the consignments were sent to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Customs suspect that the same forgery happened in those consignments, officials said.

"We are collecting all export data for the last two years and checking them," said Karim, adding that the exporter received cash incentives from the government misusing the facility in the past.

Rafiqul Islam, the proprietor of R Islam Agency, could not be reached for comments.

Monir Hossain, managing director of Bangla Food and Beverage, did not receive calls.

The government shells out nearly Tk 4,500 crore every year to provide incentives to exporters.

A section of dishonest businesses abuses the benefit by showing inflated export earnings. Various state organisations, such as the Comptroller and Auditor General had earlier found such misuse.