Author: admin

Yuletide: Customs warn smugglers to stay clear of border post

As the countdown to the yuletide season begins, Zonal Coordinator in charge of Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service, Assistant Comptroller General Victor Gbemudu has warned smugglers to stay clear of the nation’s border post. Gbemudu who gave the warning while speaking with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY in his office in Lagos said that the zone has placed officers on red alert to ensure that smugglers do not take advantage of the yuletide season to bring in smuggled goods as level of importation is expected to increase. According to him, the zone’s anti-smuggling arm, the Federal Operations Unit and commands within the border areas have been strengthened to improve on their anti-smuggling activities, one of the measures he said accounted for the seizures recorded by the unit in recent times.

http://shipsandports.com.ng/yuletide-customs-warn-smugglers-to-stay-clear-of-border-post-2/

3 Willingboro residents plead guilty in Va. cigarette smuggling

STAFFORD, Va. (AP) — Three Willingboro residents have pleaded guilty in Virginia to charges stemming from a cigarette smuggling scheme. The Free Lance-Star (http://bit.ly/1vOX1ts ) reports that 38-year-old Xochilt Williams and 44-year-old Mark Briscoe, both of Willingboro, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in Stafford Circuit Court to racketeering, credit card forgery and credit card theft. Each is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11.

R.I. men sentenced in cigarette smuggling case

PROVIDENCE – A Pawtucket man and a Central Falls man were sentenced Thursday to federal prison for their roles as leaders of a complex interstate conspiracy that transported more than 6 million contraband cigarettes from Virginia to Rhode Island.

Wissam Khalil, 41, of Central Falls was sentenced to 42 months and Bassam Nazir, 49, of Pawtucket, was sentenced to 33 months. Both men will be placed on probation for three years after their release from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/r-i-men-sentenced-in-cigarette-smuggling-case/article_9dd109a3-bef5-59e3-8d81-f9bca4da1e3b.html

South Africa ‘s military seized about 2.8 billion yuan of smuggled goods

People Johannesburg October 8 , according to the South African Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Pete Paxton (Piet Paxton) revealed that in September this year , in Limpopo and Mpumalanga seized the black market value of about 5.2 billion rand ( about 2.8 billion yuan ) of smuggled goods , including cigarettes, clothing , fake brand sports shoes.

GRA worried over increased smuggling through western corridor

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has identified the South -Western and North-Western borders of the country as areas where smuggling of goods across water bodies are common.

This sad development has come as a blow to the GRA’s core mandate of protecting revenue by preventing smuggling. The GRA personnel physically patrol the borders and other strategic points; examine goods as well as related documents, but lack of required equipment to execute this mandate has resulted in the increased smuggling in the aforementioned areas. This development has resulted in the nation losing millions of Ghana cedis through the illegal trade.

City struggles to combat smuggling

So far this year the city investigated 43,217 suspected cases and uncovered 39,542 crimes — 3,241 related to selling prohibited and smuggled goods, 366 to fake, low-quality, and pirated goods, 10,607 to cheating, and 25,328 to other offences. Police commenced criminal proceedings in 105 cases and plan to do so in 85 others. Over VND3 trillion (US$150 million) was seized from the offenders. “Smuggling is very complicated. Smugglers resort to both official and unofficial imports, especially from China, Cambodia, and Laos,” Phan Hoan Kiem, head of the city Market Watch Department, told Thoi Bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) newspaper.

http://vietnamnews.vn/society/261097/city-struggles-to-combat-smuggling.html

Hazards of high taxes on tobacco

he wise minister of a Mauryan king had advised that since all undertakings depend on finance, the king should pay foremost attention to the treasury. The efficacy of this advice has not changed. Even today, governments make sincere efforts to collect the required tax revenue from people. Often, the need and anxiety to collect more revenue makes it difficult to maintain the right balance among different considerations which, at times, are mutually conflicting. Taxation of tobacco products is an example where this delicate balance gets disturbed. It is an accepted fact that tobacco products are injurious to health. But the economic factors are among the least important reasons for reduction of addiction to this harmful product.