THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Commissioner of Customs (Kochi) Sumit Kumar on Saturday appealed more citizens to turn bounty hunters by providing information about smuggling. In a press conference at Thiruvananthapuram, he said that the seizures of gold, narcotics and currencies have increased in customs bases at Kerala. “Our informers can be rewarded up to 30 percent of the market value of the seized products. They needn’t come to court or take part in legal procedures. We will not contact them again. We seek more public support as more cases were being busted,” Mr Kumar said. He said that those caught with contraband recently and henceforth will have their passports annulled.
“Several people are being caught with contraband under the belt, gold in rectum etc from all three airports. Other than under the provisions under Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA), Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Indian Penal Code we will now be book them under Passports Act,” he said. A new container scanner was being acquired at Kochi to scan shipments and detect exporters who engaged in nefarious activities. Similarly, dog squads and scanning devices at all three airports were being boosted.
“Though we manage work with a small workforce, budget proposals seek to increase the territorial jurisdiction of the central agency from 24 nautical miles to 320 km around Indian shores. This will be a game changer,” said. During the ongoing fiscal until February, gold worth around Rs 1.96 crore, currency worth Rs 90. 86 lakh were seized. Consumer cases worth around Rs 2.91 crore were registered and drugs were also seized. Customs officials were engaging in meetings with the State Excise Department and State Police to increase coordination on land-based hunts.
