30 lakh foreign cigarettes worth Rs 3 crore seized

PNS|Vijayawada

The Vijayawada Customs officials have seized about 30 lakh foreign cigarettes worth Rs 3 crore on the outskirts of Narasaraopet town, Palnadu district. K Engineer, Commissioner, Customs Commissionerate (Preventive), Vijayawada, said that based on specific intelligence, the officers of the Vijayawada Customs (Prev) Commissionerate kept vigil and intercepted a consignment with Paris brand foreign cigarettes.

The engineer said that the ‘Paris’ cigarettes were loaded on a transport lorry carrying atta flour bags and covered with a tarpaulin to conceal the goods. Preliminary investigation has revealed that the cigarettes were loaded in the vehicle at Muzaffarpur (Bihar). Detailed examination of the lorry resulted in the seizure of total of 30 lakh sticks valued at Rs 3 crore. Based on the markings on the packets, the cigarettes appeared to be from Myanmar. The officers noticed that there was no pictorial warning, information regarding date/year of manufacture, or MRP on the packet.

The Commissioner said that accordingly, the Customs officials seized the cigarettes, acting under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. He explained that smuggling foreign cigarettes was a lucrative business for black marketers to make a huge profit as they avoid customs duty. He further explained that the smuggled cigarettes didn’t have pictorial warnings on them, which was mandatory as per the provisions of the Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution) Act, 2003.

He recalled that in the past also, the Customs had prevented large-scale smuggling of cigarettes. They have seized more than 15 million foreign-origin smuggled cigarette sticks so far in the past six months. He added that further investigation was in progress in the present case.