Cess On Cigarettes Wipes Out Rs 48K Cr From Bse in 1 Day
The Goods and Services Tax Council’s decision to increase the cess on cigarettes triggered a sharp selloff in shares of tobacco companies with the ITC scrip falling by nearly 13 per cent on
Tuesday and investors losing nearly Rs 48,000 crore in a single day’s trading.
According to a report on moneycontrol.com, the total market capitalisation of ITC on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) contracted from Rs 3,96,171.25 crore recorded on Monday to Rs 3,48,629 crore on Tuesday, which translates into a notional loss of Rs 47,542 crore. ITC which holds a weightage of 7.2 per cent in the Sensex was the biggest contributor to the decline in the index.
Other cigarette stocks Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries also tanked by up to 7.83 per cent.
After the GST Council raised the cess on cigarettes on Monday, many brokerages revised their estimates on the downside. The Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) are among the major stakeholders in ITC, followed by insurance major LIC. FPIs hold 19.99 per cent stake in ITC as per shareholding data for the quarter ended June, followed by LIC which holds 16.25 per cent and financial institutions or banks which have 9.18 per cent stake.
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Woman Caught Smuggling 102 iPhone Units Into China by Wearing Them
There have been ample reports in the past of how the obsession with Apple’s most coveted product, the iPhone, has led people to commit bizarre crimes. Whether it’s the design or its position as a status symbol, the iPhone sells like hot cakes worldwide and thus, is equatable to a huge sum of money when sold in black markets. Likewise, a new case has emerged in China where an overambitious woman tried to smuggle 102 iPhone units from Hong Kong to China by strapping them onto her body. But before her efforts could bear fruits, she was caught by Chinese custom officials at the airport, where after a thorough checking 15 luxury watches were also discovered to be in her possession.
According to a report by Chinese media XMNN, custom officers from China snatched the woman at a suspicious sight of her wearing more clothes than usual in the sweltering summer heat. The overabundance of clothes made the woman’s torso look inflated and out of proportion as compared with the rest of her body
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/iphone-woman-smuggle-china-hong-kong-wrap-around-1726846
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Nissan drives $283m-worth of fake parts off the market
A four-year partnership between carmaker Nissan and MarkMonitor has resulted in more than 31,700 counterfeit products being kept off the roads.
The partnership, which began in 2013, aims to take action against fake auto parts that pose a threat to consumer safety as well as damaging Nissan’s reputation for producing high-quality goods.
According to the firms, the partnership has made “major strides” in the crackdown of illicit activity, including the removal of more than 31,700 fake products and enforcing against more than 125,000 marketplace listings valued at $283m.
The partnership, which includes website and marketplace monitoring and enforcement tools, has also increased customer safety, the firms said, as well as decreasing domain abuse and brand confusion for the Nissan and Infiniti brands, and has significantly reduced counterfeit listings on multiple marketplace platforms globally.
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Iran Breaks Major Silver-Smuggling Ring
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Police have smashed a huge ring smuggling silver products in the northeastern city of Mashhad, arresting three ringleaders, an official said.
Police launched an operation to arrest the smugglers in the city of Mashhad on Saturday after months of intelligence activities, Qassem Khorshidi, spokesperson for the headquarters against goods and currency smuggling told Tasnim.
During the raid on a depot inside a dwelling, a 400-kg cargo of jewelry raw material and silver products was confiscated, which has been smuggled from Thailand by airfreight, he added.
The official also noted that three main ringleaders have been arrested in the operation, expressing the hope that confiscation of such huge cargo of contraband would revitalize the ailing silver industry in the Province of Khorasan Razavi.
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2017/07/17/1466497/iran-breaks-major-silver-smuggling-ring
Lear MoreDoncaster man punished for dealing in illicit tobacco
A Doncaster man has been punished for his part in an underworld operation dealing in illicit tobacco worth more than £44, 000 in duty taxes. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Andrew Mason was spotted by customs officers unloading 125kg of illegal hand-rolling tobacco from a van with another man on George Street in Doncaster in January 2016.
He was arrested and officers found £2, 500 cash in his pockets, which he admitted was for buying the illicit goods. The court heard earlier how Andrew Bond, aged 54, and his son Joe Karlson Bond, aged 22, of Ha’penny Bridge Way in Hull, were caught buying 50, 000 cigarettes and 50kg hand-rolling tobacco at a car park in Retford, Nottinghamshire, in October 2015.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/doncaster-man-punished-for-dealing-in-illicit-tobacco-1-8654815
Lear MoreTrader sentenced over 82,000 counterfeit tobacco haul
A trader who was caught selling counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco in East Street Market has been sentenced to a maximum of 12 months (suspended for two years). Mr Abdullah Al-Taaei (48) of Kennington, SE11 was due to stand trial on 6 July at the Inner London Crown Court but pleaded guilty before it commenced to multiple offences relating to the supply and possession of illegal tobacco. The court then adjourned sentencing until 29 July 2015 pending pre-sentence reports.The offences took place in March 2014 and concerned over 82,000 cigarettes as well as hand rolling tobacco. The court heard that following an anonymous tip-off Al-Taaei had been subject to surveillance by Southwark Council’s trading standard team over a three month period in early 2014.
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Capacity Building Programme for Police Officers on Socio-Economic Impact of Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Piracy
Intellectual property is a tool to incentivize innovation and creativity to strengthen the economic growth of a nation. Enforcement agencies, police and customs play a pivotal role in protection of consumer rights. There are adequate laws available but enforcement of the laws makes the role of police officers very important to fight against counterfeiters and smugglers. Therefore, to combat the socio-economic evils of counterfeiting and smuggling from the society, which are risky parasites to the economy and cause danger to the lives of individuals, FICCI CASCADE is organising a capacity building program to sensitize the police officers on the Socio-Economic Impact of Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Piracy at the Academy for Smart Policing, New Delhi on 27th July, 2018.
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Andrzej Krasnodebski of Poland jailed for smuggling nine million cigarettes in air filters into Dover
A lorry driver, who smuggled more than nine million cigarettes into the UK hidden inside air filter units, has been jailed for three years. HM Revenue and Customs estimates that Andrzej Krasnodebski evaded evading £2.5 million in duty. He was sentenced last Thursday at Maidstone Crown Court.
Krasnodebski, 45, was arrested by Border Force officers at Dover Eastern Docks on Tuesday June 13. A scan and search of the lorry’s trailer revealed it was packed with cigarettes.
Officers discovered that the load contained 1,056 cardboard boxes, each containing a bubble-wrapped air filter unit. When the casing was removed each unit had 9,000 cigarettes inside, with a total of 9,504,000 of a brand called Pect.
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/trucker-jailed-for-smuggling-nine-128969/
Lear MoreSeminar on Counterfeiting, Smuggling on Feb 21
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 19 (UNI) A seminar on ‘Combating Counterfeiting and Smuggling — An Imperative to Accelerate Economic Development’ will be held here on February 21.
The objective of the event is to outline the impact of counterfeiting and smuggling.
Senior Government officials of Industries, Commerce, Police and Customs departments will take part in the discussions during the seminar.
The event is organised by FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying Economy (CASCADE).
Kerala Agriculture Minister Adv. V. S. Sunil kumar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister P Thilothaman will grace the occasion.
http://www.uniindia.com/seminar-on-counterfeiting-smuggling-on-feb-21/states/news/1142917.html
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Customs recovers N229.95m in revenue through anti-smuggling operations
Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja Lagos, has recovered a total sum of N229.50 million through its newly reviewed anti-smuggling operations in the Lagos area.
Mohammed Uba Garba, Customs Area controller of the command, told newsmen in Lagos yesterday that the command recorded this from June 13 to July 10, following the reviewed operational strategies of the unit that enabled the officers meet up with the current trend of smuggling.
According to Garba, the unit intercepted various contraband cargoes with a duty paid value (DPV) of N200, 995,641.8 million in one month of June 13 to July 10, and “the unit also recovered N28,954,448 million from duty payments and demand notices on general goods that tried to outsmart officers at seaports, airports and border stations.”
He said demand notices were raised on cargoes that were wrongly classified, under valued with the intention to short-changing the government of its revenue, saying, “This is another spectacular breakthrough in anti-smuggling operations recorded under my watch.”
https://www.businessdayonline.com/customs-recovers-n229-95m-revenue-anti-smuggling-operations/
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