The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 3,00,000 sticks of foreign-origin cigarettes worth approximately Rs 45 lakh in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The cigarettes were being smuggled from Myanmar into India and transported from Assam, concealed within a truck carrying bamboo cuts.
A 51-year-old man was arrested in Delhi's Kashmere Gate area for possessing illegal imported cigarettes worth approximately Rs 40 lakh. The accused, identified as Sanjay Aggarwal, was found with three lakh sticks of imported cigarettes that lacked mandatory health warnings.
Customs officials at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport seized electronic items, cosmetics, cigarettes, and crude gold worth over Rs 1.79 crore from passengers arriving from Dubai, leading to one arrest.
Nepal's former parliament speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara and others have been accused of facilitating gold smuggling, leading to a corruption case filed by the CIAA.
The Customs department seized gold worth Rs 3.15 crore from two passengers at Mumbai airport, including a finance professional smuggling gold due to US-Iran conflict concerns.
Though some members of the crew were released later Bhavik Shah, who admitted to his crime, was detained for eight hours.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has successfully intercepted and seized 512 kg of red sanders at Cochin Port, preventing its illegal export to China. The red sanders were concealed within a consignment declared as rubber core veneer.
Former Nepal speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a gold smuggling case dating back three years. He is accused of assisting criminal gangs in selling smuggled gold.
Analysts have sharply reduced cigarette maker ITC's earning estimates for the next two years, fearing a significant dent in the company's profitability and margins. This is owing to a steep hike in excise duty on tobacco by the government.
The duty hike on cigarettes by 16 per cent announced in the Union Budget 2023-24 would have a nominal impact of around 7-12 paise per stick across cigarette categories, according to experts. This upward revision in National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) would have negligible impact on smokers and the companies could easily absorb the shock as it may not also have any resultant impact on margins, they said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama in the Union Budget for 2023-24 on Wednesday proposed to revise and increase the duty on cigarettes to about 16 per cent.
A vessel allegedly smuggling cigarettes and some other items from Dubai and carrying a banned satellite phone was intercepted off the Mumbai coast, and five Indians on board were taken into custody, Coast Guard and police officials said on Thursday.
Huge margins, high custom duty and increasing demand among youngsters have led to exponential increase in smuggling of foreign cigarettes.
The war of words between the Samajwadi Party and Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma war turned personal on Sunday with SP leader Shivpal Yadav accusing the Union Minister of smuggling opium and using charas.
Thirty people who were detained at the Lucknow airport for allegedly smuggling gold into the country escaped after one of them pretended to fall sick and created chaos, officials said.
ITC buys two-thirds of tobacco from Andhra Pradesh and the remaining one-third from Karnataka for its cigarette manufacturing division
Standing near the noose, he recited a couplet in which he said he wished nothing but to sacrifice his life for the motherland. Utkarsh Mishra remembers Ram Prasad Bismil on the revolutionary leader's 128th birth anniversary.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade of India made it mandatory for imported cigarettes and other tobacco products to carry pictorial warnings against tobacco consumption on the packs.
Cigarette companies have substantial wriggle room thanks to India's complex tax structure, which categorises them by length and filter
In the past 18 months, the department of revenue intelligence has seized 50 containers of cigarettes, valued at nearly Rs 200 crore
ITC highlighted that legal cigarettes account for 9 per cent of tobacco consumption in India, but 80 per cent of tax collection is from tobacco products. While illicit cigarettes account for roughly one-third of the market share, legal cigarette volumes have recovered to around 96 per cent of peak FY13 volumes, after dipping to 70 per cent in FY21.
Target prices around Rs 400 suggest a significant upside.
ITC's results for the January-March quarter (Q4) were strong, with robust growth in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment and a good performance in hospitality. The tobacco division's performance was on expected lines, with double-digit volume growth, helped by reclaiming of market share from the smuggled trade. There was 60 per cent growth in non-cigarette earnings before interest and tax (Ebit), despite a relatively weak performance in paperboards.
'We are certainly open to inorganic opportunities to grow.'
Deveshwar wondered whether the countries FUNDING the anti-smoking NGOs had pictorial warnings.
This is the first time such a list has been published online by HM Revenue and Customs.
Sources said the action was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort when he said some black sheep in the tax administration may have misused their powers and harassed taxpayers, either by targeting honest assesses or by taking excessive action for minor or procedural violations.
Smuggling and crime are everyday instances. The 70,000 people in villages along the border make the going tough for the BSF. Neelabh Srivastava reports
'The Chinese -- up to the highest leadership -- will avoid a conflict because they know they will be badly licked.' 'The reputation they have painstakingly built over the last two-three decades of being a global power will be destroyed.'
A parliamentary panel termed the government's proposed 85 per cent pictorial warnings on tobacco products as "too harsh" and recommended a drastic reduction in size.
'The problem of 2015 is not who did it but how we should punish the guy who did it. The judicial system in our country is hugely inadequate.' Dibakar Banerjee talks about his new film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy and much more.
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