1st seizure of Chinese pesticides at city port

Dec. 24: The Chennai port customs department has seized a big shipment of illegally imported pesticides and insecticides which had come in from Shanghai in China. Customs officials, who termed it a ‘dangerous and disturbing’ racket, said that the seized items were wrongly declared as chemicals. The intelligence and special investigation team of customs has also found major duty evasion in the import.

“We have seized pesticides and insecticides worth Rs 3.5 crore for the first time from Chennai port, which were imported from China violating import guidelines of the country,” said Mr C. Rajan, commissioner of customs. “We have also detected duty evasion to the tune of Rs 12 lakh from six importers based in Chennai.”

The import of pesticides and insecticides requires a special license from the Central Insecticides Board in New Delhi, but importers tried to bring them in under the guise of chemicals, which do not require a special license.

Besides affecting the surface water purity and leaving residues in soil, untested pesticides are a major threat to human beings, says the data of Central Insecticides Board. “The duty rate of pesticides is higher compared to chemicals and these items don’t carry the name of product, manufacturer and details of its content and storage place,” said a senior customs official.

Cases have been registered against six importers including Chennai based East West International, Chendur enterprises, Ideal Traders, Rudhrag Bioticks, Tower steel in Madurai, and T. Kumaran Traders in Kovilpatti. Port customs has also cancelled the licenses of two custom house agents.