Smuggling of gold, cigarettes, liquor surges amid COVID.

New Delhi: Gold, cigarettes and liquor were among high tax items which topped the list of smuggled goods across India amid the current coronavirus crisis that has led to economic distress.

Smuggling of these goods not only registered a sharp spike amid the pandemic but also smugglers, interestingly, used innovative measures like ferrying illegal cigarettes in COVID-19 special trains.

Revealing the fact based on a study of seizure of such smuggled items, FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (CASCADE) said Customs officials had two significant seizures of smuggled cigarettes at the New Delhi railway station where the smugglers were using COVID-19 special trains for ferrying these products in less than a week.

These seizures come on the back of two other significant busts of foreign cigarette smuggling rackets, the first in Mumbai and the second one in Hyderabad, said the study, adding the combined value of the seizures is over Rs 15 crore.

https://www.siasat.com/smuggling-of-gold-cigarettes-liquor-surges-amid-covid-1923943/