By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 20, 2015: THE year 2015 is coming to an end and it was an important calendar year from the perspective of enforcement of the provisions of Customs Act and Central Excise Act. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), for the first time, launched an International Operation - "Operation Sesha" in the Asia-Pacific Region (named after Seshachalam Hills in Andhra Pradesh where Red Sanders grows) to combat smuggling of all species of timber including Red Sanders. 18 Customs administrations participated in the Operation. The operation which commenced in October 2014 and ended on 30 th May 2015 was highly successful. 400 MT was seized in 8 countries. Apart from this a total of 379.733 MT of Red Sanders was seized in India.

DRI, on behalf of Indian Customs, participated and coordinated several cross border operations covering strategic goods (Cosmo), illegal trafficking in methamphetamine by air passengers (Westerlies 3) , counterfeit medicines (Operation PANGEA-VII), which were spearheaded by WCO or INTERPOL. Project Global Shield (PGS), an International effort to counter the illicit diversion and trafficking of precursor chemical, is a regular programme of WCO.

During FY 2014-15, the DRI, for the second time hosted the Regional Customs Enforcement Meeting , which was attended by Customs Enforcement Heads of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The DRI has been awarded for the second year running the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)' Asia Environmental Enforcement Award (AEEA), in recognition of its excellent work in combating environmental crime.This is a prestigious award and reflects the outstanding work done by DRI in preventing the illegal trade in Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS) and smuggling of Red Sanders, a CITES, Appendix II item.

The Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence, DGCEI and the Commissionerates have booked 4945 cases involving a duty amount of Rs 1545.11 crore during April to October 2015. An additional amount of Rs. 226.38 has been mobilised on account of anti evasion activity of the Department during this period.