SHILLONG: The customs sleuths of the headquarters (preventive) unit, Shillong, intercepted a consignment of over 1,000 cartons of smuggled cigarettes worth over Rs 9 lakh at Guwahati which was meant to be smuggled to Meghalaya.
Officials from the customs on Thursday said that acting on the basis of specific intelligence, the customs intercepted a consignment of smuggled cigarettes from a courier agency at Guwahati on December 1.
Official said that the items were seized from a normal courier agency at Guwahati.
During the raid, a total of 1397 cartons of GE Classic Golden Elephant Brand and WIN Brand cigarettes of Myanmar origin, valued at Rs. 9.38 lakh were seized.
The goods were consigned from Dimapur and ongoing investigation indicates that the consignment might have been meant for Meghalaya.
Further investigation is in progress but no one has been arrested in this connection so far.
Reacting to a query, an official admitted that there is illegal movement of cigarettes from Myanmar to Northeast even as he added that smuggling of cigarettes used to take place from Bangladesh border earlier, but strict vigilance in the border has reduced the smuggling.
Earlier, a report in July this year said that Assam and Meghalaya were incurring revenue losses to the tune of Rs 700 crore every year due to illegal trade of cigarettes, which are manufactured locally as well as smuggled from neighbouring countries.
Moreover, almost 23 crore illegal tax-evaded cigarette sticks are sold in these two states every month.
As per reports, very high VAT rate on cigarettes in Assam and Meghalaya in comparison to national average is the key reason for the growing illegal market of tobacco.
Most of the smuggled cigarettes do not carry the graphical health warnings mandated by Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), which endangers the tobacco control policy of the government.
