BENGALURU: Customs officials conducted simultaneous raids on shops selling smuggled cigarettes in Bengaluru city recently.
The officials seized 63 foreign brands of cigarettes worth Rs. 25 lakh smuggled from across nine countries. High customs duty on imported cigarettes and increasing demand owing to cheaper rates compared to locally-manufactured cigarettes were the main reasons that made smuggling cigarettes lucrative, said K.V. Ganesh Prasad, Joint Commissioner (Prev.), Office of the Commissioner of Customs, City Commissionerate, in a release.
