AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad unit of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Thursday seized around 25 lakh cigarette sticks worth Rs 2.5 crore at Mundra port. The container with cigarettes had arrived from the middle-east and the consignment was in the name of a Jamnagar based firm. This is the third major incident of cigarette smuggling in Gujarat in the current financial year.
The firm had declared brass scrap in the customs form but the container actually had customs. Acting on the intelligence by DRI Mumbai, the officials searched the container at Mundra and recovered cigarette sticks of various brands.
“Currently, the duty on imported cigarette is around 110% and on the basis of this the firm had evaded duty of more than Rs 5 crore. Also another container of the same firm is on the way from middle-east and it is too likely to be searched by DRI officials,” said a source.
The investigation is still on in the case.
In 2015-16, around 3.39 crore cigarette sticks worth Rs 24.79 crore have been seized by DRI in Gujarat alone.
Import duties as high as 90% and excise duty raised by 25% in 2015-16 Budget has led to an increase in domestic prices. This has made smuggling of cigarettes even more attractive.
In what could be termed as largest ever single haul of foreign-made cigarettes into the country, DRI had seized 3.21 crore of sticks worth Rs 23.29 crore from Hazira port in Surat in last week of March this year.
