Indian Airport Intelligence Unit seizes non-duty paid cigarettes worth Rs3.86m

TAMIL NADU: Officers of the Airport Intelligence Unit seized 2,340 cartons of foreign cigarettes worth Rs3.86 million from seven passengers at Coimbatore international airport.

The passengers, hailing from Chennai, Madurai and Kerala, arrived from Singapore by Silk Air.

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According to Customs officials, persons smuggle cigarette by evading the import duty eyeing the high profit margin.

“As import duty for cigarettes is 145%, they make huge margin by evading the hefty import duty,” said a source.

The officials have imposed import duty of Rs5.6 million along with an equal amount of fine on the seized cigarettes. They said that failure to pay the duty and fine will result in confiscation of the contraband.

In normal cases, a passenger can carry 200 sticks of cigarettes without paying the import duty.