Customs busts illegal Agarbatti import racket

In a major drive against the smuggling of Agarrbattis from Vietnam, Customs officers on Wednesday arrested Bharat H. Shah and his son, Shri Ronik Shah at Chennai after seizing 161.94 MT of Agarbattis and 68.36 MT of Agarbatti Powder which was found concealed in containers imported by M/s. Indian Agarbatti Manufacturers, Bangalore.
This is one of the biggest seizures of restricted items in recent times at the port.

The importer had declared to the customs that these containers contained Joss powder and Premix powder for making incense sticks. Joss powder is normally chargeable to 15 percent customs duty but the duty is ‘Nil’ under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN which includes Vietnam.

The importer was thus trying to take advantage of the FTA as well as use the items covered thereunder to conceal and smuggle restricted Agarbattis; Agarbattis are placed in the restricted category since August last year and cannot be imported without a license.

Acting on solid input that some unscrupulous importers were clandestinely smuggling Agarbattis from Vietnam after the item was restricted for import, the Customs used data analytics to identify the suspect importer, M/s. Indian Agarbatti Manufacturers. Thereafter, a tight watch was kept on its six imported containers that had landed at the Chennai port.

https://www.cnbctv18.com/business/customs-busts-smuggling-racket-in-agarbattis-by-misuse-of-asian-free-trade-agreement-6493261.htm