Cigarette, fabric and silk yarn highest smuggled goods in 2015-16: Ficci

New Delhi, Dec 8: Smugglers in India are switching to cigarettes, fabric and silk yarn from other items as they are low-risk and high-reward goods, a new report released by the industry lobby Ficci said on Thursday. “Cigarettes smuggling is a low-risk, high-reward crimil activity because high taxes on cigarettes induce great fincial incentive for smugglers to earn huge profits,” said the report released by Ficci’s CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy). “The seizures of gold have witnessed an increase of 61 per cent (from Rs 692.35 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,119.11 crore in 2015-16). While the Department of Revenue Intelligence seizures of machinery parts and electronic items has seen a decline,” the report said. The conference was organised with an aim to ensure that tiol and intertiol stakeholders can dialogue with policymakers to identify opportunities for joint action between governments and the private sector to combat illicit cross-border trade.

“Operations in illicit cross-border trade, is a global problem of enormous scale, impacting virtually every product sector and every country. The illicit market for fake or counterfeit or smuggled products is also one of the biggest challenges faced by Indian industry, which is impacting ‘Brand India’ globally,” said Hem Pande, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs. jib Shah, Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), said that illegal trade is a growing mece and the need of the hour is collaboration among stakeholders to tackle it. “Growth of illicit trade through e-commerce is a new challenge, which also needs urgent attention. Unchecked, it will continue to multiply. We also need to lay equal emphasis on the rights of legitimate businesses, which are greatly impacted by illegal trade,” he said. (IANS)