By TIOL News Service

KOLKATA, SEPT 14, 2018: SMOKING cigarettes tends to give a 'kick'! But smoking foreign sticks perhaps gives an extra 'kick'! That is why there has been a continuous supply of smuggled sticks in many parts of India. In the latest case, the Kolkata DRI has busted a major racket with the arrest of two kingpins based in Mumbai. Indonesian origin sticks, smuggled from Dubai, valued at about Rs two crores, were seized.

And the smuggling was taking place through the legal route! The DRI sleuths detected a container at Haldia Docks, declared to be containing Tissue papers, whereas it had only Cigarettes. On examination, presence of 1,00,000 sticks of MOND Strawberry Cigarettes (Filter Cigarettes Superslims) and 1440000 sticks of GUDANG GARAM INTERNATIONAL Cigarettes was found amounting to outright smuggling and mis-declaration. 150 cartons of “FEEL 150X2 Ply White Facial Tissues” were also found which were used to conceal the smuggled Cigarettes valued at Rs. 1.86 Crore.

Cigarettes attract a high rate of Customs and IGST duty of around 72.9 %. As such, the total duty sought to be evaded is Rs 1.37 Crores. Further, imports of Cigarettes are required to comply with the labelling requirements that cover warnings (Pictorial & Textual Combined) of over 85% of the front and back of the pack as per the provisions of Para 13 of General Notes regarding Import Policy of ITC(HS) -Schedule 1 - Import Policy –and the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) (COTPA) Amendment Rules, 2017 (as amended from time to time).

The smuggled Foreign Brand Cigarettes, viz. Gudang Garam Cigarette were found to have only around 50% space covered with specific health warning (Pictorial & Textual Combined) and in case of Mond Strawberry Cigarettes, pictorial specific health warning were not there, which has contravened the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Amendment Rules, 2017 (as amended from time to time).

Investigations further revealed existence of Import Export Code (IEC) lending racket. In this case, the alleged mastermind of the racket was found to be one one Ram Kishan Lolaraknath Pandey, a Mumbai based Clearing and Forwarding Agent running Clearing & forwarding firms by the names of M/s. Overseas Freight Management and M/s. R. Enterprises, who in association with another Mumbai based Clearing and Forwarding Agent named Bansidhar Surendranath Panigrahi of M/s. PSS Maritime & Co. and M/s. Ashpura Marine & logistic Service have found to have used IEC of one Kolkata based Importer M/s. R.D. Impex, without his knowledge and his consent.

Ram Kishan Lolaraknath Pandey and Bansidhar Surendranath Panigrahi, both based in Mumbai have been arrested by the DRI in Kolkata in the last few days and are presently in Judicial Custody.

Some time back, the DRI in Kolkata had seized 33,72,800 sticks of smuggled cigarettes of the similar brands valued at close to Rs. 3 Crore. Two persons were arrested in that case.