Chattogram Bureau :
Mafias smuggle gold, drugs, weapons and snake venom all over the world. Traffickers prefer products that weigh less and are more expensive. Officials of Chittagong Custom House have found such a ‘hidden treasure’ this year. The government band roll (tobacco stamp) which is used as a souvenir of revenue collection in the pack of cigarettes has been thwarted by two attempts to print it from abroad and bring it in paper invoices with fancy tactics. The organized clique used to earn more than 100 crore takas illegally in such a container! According to sources, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has a unique code number for all the products imported or exported from the country.
More than 3 million containers (TEU’s) of thousands of goods are handled in a year at Chittagong port alone. In two of these containers, Custom House has recently stopped attempts to smuggle fake stamps or band rolls of cigarette packets. In addition to facilitating trade in the country, customs also takes care of various illegal matters including false declarations, low tariff products, high value goods, low weight goods, money laundering and smuggling. In cusstoms circle , there has been an uproar over the attempt to thwart the attempt to embezzle large sums of revenue through small paper shipments. Many have termed it as ‘hidden treasure’.
On December 14, Bappu Enterprise, an importer of Anderkilla in Chittagong, received counterfeit stamps of 31.96 million pieces of cigarettes in a 20-foot-long container of art paper from China, according to customs officials. C&F Agent Madhumati Associates Limited submitted a Bill of Entry (Number: C-1991924) on 9 December at Custom House, Chittagong for the purpose of unloading the consignment. The Port Control Unit (PCU) of Chittagong Custom House, under risk management, analyzes the exporter’s, exporter’s website, country of manufacture, type and address of importer’s business, product description, etc. The audit investigation and research (AIR) team of the department later locked the bill of entry of the goods in the Asaikuda World system of the National Board of Revenue. So that no one can be redeemed.
After that, the AIR team of Chittagong Custom House started testing the goods inside the port as per the rules. After showing 5 palettes out of 20 palettes in the container on the basis of dual selection, the C&F agent started procrastinating and requested to complete the physical examination at one stage. Only art paper is available in those 5 palettes. But the AIR team kept pushing for a 100% physical examination. Members of the AIR team then open another palette and find counterfeit cigarette stamps. After completing 20 percent palette physical examination of 20 palettes by AIR team, a total of 246 packets (260 bundles per packet and 500 pieces per bundle) were found in the packaging of 319.70 thousand low quality 10 stick cigarettes of light brown color suitable for use.
According to him, the color of the lower level cigarette stamp is light brown with maximum retail price of Tk. 39 to Tk. 62 and against which SD rate is 56 percent and VAT rate is 15 percent. If the shipment had been cleared, the stamp could have been used in a packet of 319.6 million low-end cigarettes, which would have cost the government about 90 crore to 143 crore takas in revenue. According to sources, to collect stamp or bandroll from The Security Printing Corporation of Bangladesh as per sub-rule (5) of rule 11 of SRO No. 181-Ain / 2019/36-VAT of National Board of Revenue, dated June 13, 2019.
A committee consisting of representatives of The Security Printing Corporation of Bangladesh and Cigarette Manufacturers by the concerned Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate as per Rule (6) is required to check the supply and use of Cigarette Stamps and Bandrolls every 3 (three) months every year. VAT is to be sent to the implementation branch. As a result, there is no opportunity to buy or import such products from any organization other than The Security Printing Corporation of Bangladesh.
