Cigarette smuggling and revenue loss
Joint operation
along the border with sharing
of strategic
information can reduce smuggling
It is a matter concern that huge quantities of cigarettes are being smuggled into Bangladesh from the neighbouring countries. This trend is not only increasing the use of harmful tobacco in the country, it is also causing the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to lose revenue in the form of value added tax (VAT). A NBR investigation reveals that smugglers are bringing into Bangladesh substandard cigarettes from Myanmar through the hill tracts region. The NBR has also found that some regional cigarette-producing companies are using fake band-rolls and reusing the same to evade duties.
According to a report published in this newspaper yesterday, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate seized 27,489 cartons of smuggled cigarettes worth Tk 7 crore from July 2013 to December 2015. VAT is a major source of NBRs revenue collection and in 2015-16 fiscal, it collected Tk 56,080 crore from VAT and Tk 16,690 crore of it came from cigarettes, a whopping 30 percent of the total.
That is why the NBR has decided to be tough in dealing with smuggled cigarettes and the ones in the market without band-roll. It is, no doubt, a welcome NBR initiative. It is expected now that the field level offices of the NBR would follow the directive of the organisations chairman in this regard. Because of smuggling of cigarettes from neighbouring countries and use of fake band-roll and the reuse of the same for several times are causing a huge loss to the national exchequer.
But cigarette alone is not being smuggled through our porous border with India and Myanmar. Besides tobacco products, narcotics substances such as yaba are entering into the country, posing a great threat to our public health. A large section of young people all over the country is now getting addicted to yaba. It is still a matter of worry that more harmful substances are coming to Bangladesh, but in some cases Bangladesh is used as a transit also.
That is why the prime imperative is to increase the border vigilance so that smuggling of all goods including tobacco products and narcotics could be stopped. Bangladesh ought to seek cooperation of India and Myanmar in this regard. Joint operation along the border with sharing of strategic information can bring encouraging result in reducing smuggling.
