New Delhi: In a major drive against the smuggling of Agarbattis from Vietnam by misusing the provisions ASEAN free trade agreement, Customs officials on Wednesday arrested two businessmen in Chennai and seized huge quantities of Agarbatti and Agarbatti Powder.
Tax officials arrested Chennai based Bharat H Shah and his son Ronik Shah and seized 162 tons of Agarbattis and over 68 tons Agarbatti powder. Customs officials found them concealed in containers imported by Indian Agarbatti Manufacturers, Bangalore.
“This is one of the biggest seizures of restricted items in recent times at the port,” said sources.
The importer had declared to the Customs that these containers contained Joss powder and Premix powder for making incense sticks.
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According to sources, Joss powder is normally chargeable to 15% Customs duty but it doesn’t attract any custom duty under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN which includes Vietnam.
Sources said the importer was trying to take undue advantage of the FTA to conceal and smuggle restricted Agarbattis.
Agarbattis are placed in the restricted category since August last year and cannot be imported without a licence.
How Customs officials busted Agarbatti smuggling racket
Customs officials used data analytics to identify the suspect importer.
Officials also kept a watch on the six containers imported by the importer which landed at Chennai port.
The containers said to contain Joss powder and Premix powder for making incense sticks revealed huge quantities of undeclared Agarbatttis and Agarbatti powder cleverly concealed behind the declared goods, sources told ETV Bharat.
According to people familiar with the matter, the operation was not limited to Chennai alone and officials also raided office and residential premises of the importer located in Bengaluru also.
These search operations revealed that the importer duo had ordered two more containers from Vietnam which were on pipeline. At Chennai port these two containers were identified and searched, leading to recovery of concealed Agarbattis in huge quantities.
The seizures and arrests are part of a nation-wide drive by the Customs to stop the smuggling of Agarbattis, which are on the restricted list of import.
(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)
