Foreign cigarettes worth Rs 2.2 crore seized by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence

Kochi: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths on Tuesday seized a shipment of foreign cigarettes worth over Rs 2.20 crore at the Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal here. The cigarettes were smuggled in a consignment shipped from Dubai port which was declared as gypsum boards by the importer. “The consignment had arrived at the ICTT two days ago from the Dubai port and subjected to detailed inspection today. During the search, we found 6560 cartons of ‘Gudang Garam’ cigarettes being concealed inside thick layers of gypsum boards,” DRI officials said.

The consignment was imported by a company named Deva Impex based in Kerala. The seizure is the second biggest bust of foreign-made cigarettes in the state this year after the catch in January last when the DRI had seized foreign cigarettes worth Rs 8.9 crore from a consignment arrived from Jebel Ali port in the UAE. According to DRI officials, the profit margin in cigarette smuggling is very high.

The customs import duty of cigarettes stands around 150 percent, which makes the smuggling business even more lucrative. A surge in cigarette smuggling is being noticed especially after the regulations on the quantity of cigarettes each person could carry, which has been brought down to one carton (200 sticks) from two cartons. “Unlike gold, cigarettes are not detected by scanners,” add DRI officials.