NBR hunts for fake cigarette band rolls

The Customs House Chattogram (CHC) and the VAT Intelligence have already conducted several investigations to find the destination of fake cigarette band rolls that dodged the eyes of authorities.

Customs officials are also trying to find out the identity of the "organised gang" that illegally imported fake band rolls through false declarations.

The CHC has so far seized two consignments of band rolls but the importers have managed to have 11 consignments released under their noses.

According to a CHC document, customs officials seized around 3.5 tonnes of fake band rolls worth Tk 243 crore in mid-December.

The consignments were imported from Digi Anti-Fake (Shenzhen) Co Ltd in China by two Chattogram-based trading companies, Bappu Enterprise and Arafat Enterprise.

However, the two companies were able to secure the release of about 197.4 tonnes of goods imported from the same exporting company between September 2020 and November 2021.

According to Digi Anti-Fake's website, the company produces cigarette tax stamps, passports, ballot papers, and voter identification cards.

Customs sources say the forgery of two consignments was identified by the CHC's Port Control Unit by analysing the related documents and trading history.

Customs officials suspect that all of the 13 consignments imported contained fake cigarette band rolls that were declared as art paper from the exporting company.

After seizing the two consignments, the CHC filed two criminal cases against the two importers and five owners of clearing and forwarding agents at Bandar Police Station in Chattogram on December 17 last year.

As per the case documents, Assistant Revenue Officer Shahariar Hossain filed the cases on behalf of the customs commissioner, accusing eight persons.

"A review of the exporter's website found no information on paper making but the importers brought in 13 consignments of fake cigarette band rolls by declaring it as paper," the document said.

As a result, the government has lost thousands of crores of taka in revenue.

"Such crimes can only be committed by a well organised criminal gang, who should be identified and punished," it added.

The document went on to state that the released fake band rolls can't be used in such a short time. So, it is necessary to interrogate the accused and seize the unused materials.

Mohammad Salahuddin Rizvi, deputy commissioner of the CHC, told The Daily Star that it was very important to identify who is using these illegal band rolls.

"It will be possible to identify the main culprits of this gang and the destination of these band rolls if the accused are arrested," he said.

VAT Intelligence officials said as these band rolls were imported illegally, the government will not get any duty from the cigarettes sold using these tax stamps.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) collects around Tk 25,000 crore as revenue from the sale of cigarette band rolls each year.

Moinul Khan, director general of the VAT Intelligence, Investigation and Audit Directorate, said that they had already formed a five-member committee to look into the destinations of the band rolls.

"Further action will be taken based on the information received by the committee," he said.

As per NBR guidelines, cigarette manufacturing companies have to collect band rolls from the Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd, the lone printer of banknotes and government postal stamps in the country.

The NBR earns revenue by selling these types of stamps, and companies are not allowed to buy the stamps from anyone other than the revenue authority.

Upon paying 15 per cent value-added tax and 57 per cent supplementary duty to the NBR, cigarette companies are allowed to collect tax stamps from the local printer, not foreign firms.

Officials of Bappu Enterprise or Arafat Enterprise could not be reached for comments as their phones were found switched off.

Bappu Enterprise registered its address as the second floor of the GA building in Chattogram's Anderkilla and Arafat Enterprise registered its address as the fourth floor of Kader Tower on Jubilee Road, both under Kotwali thana. However, this correspondent found no trace of the companies in the addresses during a recent visit.

Zahedul Kabir, officer-in-charge of Bandar Police Station, said: "It is difficult to identify the accused as they have used fake information in the import documents. But an operation is underway to arrest them."