FICCI lauds DRI for largest seizure of smuggled cigarettes
New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) FICCIs Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (CASCADE) has applauded the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), who in a major haul seized foreign brand cigarettes worth Rs 11.88 crore from a container at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai on June 12.
This is one of the biggest seizures since lockdown. Amid lockdown, several cases of seizures by enforcement agencies of smuggled imported cigarettes have been reported indicating a spike in cigarette smuggling over the last few months. The trend is nationwide, with seizures intercepted via road transport, in cargo and passenger luggage.
Congratulating the officers of DRI, Anil Rajput, Chairman, FICCI CASCADE said “Cigarette smuggling is a big racket across the globe and India continues to remain a hot bed for this menace. Even as the country is grappling with the coronavirus crisis, the seizures of such goods remain high”.
For developing countries, widespread smuggling has a particularly debilitating effect on efforts to improve domestic resource mobilization, by denying tax revenues, which subsequently affect government spending on healthcare, education, infrastructure.
Related Posts
More than RM67M worth of smuggled goods seized in Malaysian waters
PUTRAJAYA (Bernama) – More than RM67 million worth of goods were seized by the...
P25-M counterfeit drugs seized
A container van loaded with P25 million worth of fake medicines was confiscated...
Don’t get faked out by gadgets
China is the origin of 70 percent of counterfeit products seized globally. In the...
Fake goods haul in 2018 at record high of P23.6 billion.
The government captured P23.6 billion of pirated and counterfeit goods last...