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Journalism of Courage
The government has detected a total of 5,293 cases of ‘restricted material’ being smuggled into India valued at Rs 1,086.53 crore at October-end 2017, up from Rs 805.56 crore worth of material detected in the entire fiscal year 2016-17 involving 10,326 cases, according to latest data from the Ministry of Finance. The value of smuggled material has gone up in the current year after falling in the previous financial year.
A total of 428 items are currently restricted for imports as per Schedule 1 of ITC(HS) or the Indian Trade Clarification based on Harmonized System of Coding. These items include certain animals, drugs, industrial explosives, gun powder, narcotics, weapons, chemical products containing ozone depleting substances and currency note paper among others. The government departments strengthening their information networks to prevent smuggling of such items.
The Customs Department is currently working with the Department of Posts on a data exchange project to effectively deal with cases of outright smuggling. The two departments are collaborating on the SECUREX or the Security and Customs Related Electronic Exchange of data project, the sources said. Once implemented, this project will enable computerisation of postal imports/exports and the postal and customs department exchange advance data, the sources said.
“The field formations have been alerted to be more vigilant and have proper checks to thwart and detect the cases of smuggling of restricted material. The staff has been sensitized from time to time to keep strict vigil to curb smuggling of restricted/prohibited material,” official sources said. It is not immediately clear which ‘restricted items’ were recovered by the Customs Department.
The government is also working on cases of preventing smuggling of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) into the country from neighbouring borders. As per the data available with National Crime Record Bureau, FICN of Rs 2000 denomination worth Rs 1.77 crore have been seized during the current fiscal year till November-end in five states sharing international borders with Bangladesh.
High value cigarettes and tobacco products are the other category whose smuggling is under the radar. The Customs Department seized Rs 130 crore worth of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco products in 2016-17 as compared to Rs 150 crore worth of seizures in 2015-16. The department has asked its field formations to detect such cases taking help of the Container Scanners, Baggage Screening Systems and Advance Passenger Information System (APIS). Gold, narcotics and weapons smuggling are other areas being probed by the departments.
