Burning of over one crore smuggled cigarette sticks worth nearly ₹18 cr underway in north Kerala

The Customs Department on Wednesday began the disposal of a mountain of contraband cigarettes that were confiscated in the last few years from carriers, godowns and shops in Malappuram, Kozhikode and Thrissur. 

The stash weighing 16 tonnes, equivalent to the weight of 6-8 adult elephants, is being burned at high temperature in the kilns of a private cement factory in north Kerala. It will take nearly a month for the entire hoard to be disposed. 

To be incinerated are 1,07,69,400 (1.08 crore) cigarette sticks worth ₹17,43,91,000 (₹17.44 crore). 

A top Customs official said that this was one of the biggest mass disposals of smuggled cigarettes in the country in the last few years. Early this month, on April 7, the Airport Customs Commissionerate of the Chennai Customs Zone had destroyed 8.3 lakh sticks of foreign-origin cigarettes, 4,098 pieces of e-cigarettes, and 138 packages containing hundreds of liquor bottles. Together, it was worth ₹4.1 crore.

The senior Customs official said that the Pollution Control Board had given its nod and that the disposal was done strictly adhering to norms. "The cigarettes are being disposed at the rate of approximately 500 kg a day is expected to take 20-30 days," the official said.

The cigarettes seized in the last few years from Malappuram, Kozhikode and Thrissur were confiscated after due process, and penalties have also been imposed on the individuals. Most of the confiscated cigarettes have been imported illegally without following statutory norms, like having warning stickers. Penalties were slapped at the time of confiscation. The biggest haul was 95 lakh smuggled cigarette sticks from a godown in Malappuram. There were also instances when large quantities of railway parcels were intercepted by customs officials.  

The seized cigarettes, cigars also did not conform to the provisions/conditions laid down under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008. The seized cigarettes were also not compliant to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 framed under Legal Metrology Act 2009.

The seized foreign-origin cigarettes of various brands, including Paris, Gudang Garam, Dunhill, etc., were smuggled into the country by resorting to mis-declaration in contravention of the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.