Full cigarette-making plant seized at Chattogram port under packing-machine declaration

The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) has seized a complete plant of seven machines for making and packaging cigarettes in a consignment imported through Chattogram port under a declaration of packing and wrapping machines. Six machines were initially reported, but a detailed examination identified seven in total, while the import declaration had shown the consignment in six packages.

The CIID confirmed the seizure on Thursday (12 November). National Board of Revenue (NBR) public relations officer Md Al Amin said the commercial importer 'JR Business World' (BIN 009035344-0401) of Mirpur, Dhaka, imported the consignment from 'Ali Industries Limited' of the United Arab Emirates.

In Bill of Entry No. C-1321878, filed at Chattogram Custom House on 4 November, the goods were declared as a 'BNC Packing Line Machine Set'. The declaration used HS code 84224000, which covers packing and wrapping machines.

The CIID examination, however, found an HPL 225 cigarette maker, an HPL packer, an HPL feeder, an HPL gluing machine, a CP1 cigarette pack wrapping machine, a SASIB boxer cigarette packing machine and a cigarette film overwrapper, or cellophane overwrapper. In other words, the core cigarette-making machines themselves had been brought in behind the cover of packing equipment.

The declared invoice value of the consignment was only US$17,600. Yet website-based information puts its preliminary estimated value at US$443,000 — about 25 times the declared figure. The consignment weighed 5,500 kg in total, with a net weight of 5,226 kg. Its C&F agent was Express Logistics Limited (AIN 301760621).

The CIID said the exporting company's main business is tobacco production and the supply of tobacco-industry machinery. According to the directorate's observation, cigarette-making machines or production lines should properly be imported only through the country's roughly 29 cigarette manufacturers or their authorised suppliers.

If such machinery is imported and used outside that rule, there is a major risk that cigarettes of well-known brands and top taxpayer companies will be counterfeited, produced and marketed, the CIID said. Consumers are cheated, legitimate manufacturers suffer business losses and the government loses a huge amount of revenue. The directorate said false declaration of goods has been preliminarily established in this case of a cigarette production line brought in behind packing machines.

A detailed investigation is under way into the importer's credentials, the correct HS classification, the real value, the applicable duties and taxes, and the machinery's end use. The CIID also said its drives for proper revenue collection in the cigarette sector and against counterfeit cigarette production and marketing will continue.