VIJAYAWADA: Sleuths of Customs Commissionerate (Preventive), Vijayawada, detected concealed foreign brand cigarettes worth Rs. 3.45 crore in a container truck on Wednesday.
Commissionerate’s principal commissioner S. Faheem Ahmad said they received information that foreign brand cigarettes are being smuggled into Vijayawada city in a container truck. They stepped up surveillance and during early hours of Wednesday intercepted the container truck at Kesarapalli on Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam National Highway.
On inspection, officials found the vehicle loaded with 156 high-density polyethylene (HDPE) sacks sealed from the top. The sacks contained 26,40,000 Paris brand cigarettes packed in 264 cartons and 16,32,000 Gold Vimal cigarettes packed in 136 cartons. On questioning, driver of the container truck informed that he took over driving of the vehicle from Patna in Bihar and drove it to Vijayawada as per instructions of his management.
Paris brand cigarettes are suspected to be of Myanmar origin while Gold Vimal cigarettes are Indian-made that have evaded payment of GST.
Smuggling foreign cigarettes is a lucrative business for black marketers, as they make huge profits by avoiding customs duty. They also do not have pictorial warnings on them, as is mandatory in India as per provisions of Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. The cigarette packets did not have the manufacturer’s address on them. The driver did not carry any bills of procurement or import.
Fahim Ahmad said the consignment is the biggest-ever seizure of smuggled foreign cigarettes by their Commissionerate since its formation in 2014.
