The curious connection between illicit cigarette sales and ISIS
Are loosies a terrorist revenue stream? State Rep. Rick Saccone thinks so.
During a session ahead of a vote on the state budget’s revenue package last week, Saccone, a Republican from Allegheny County, objected to a proposed $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase Wednesday. The new tax, which Governor Wolf signed into law later that day, raises the state’s levy to $2.60 per pack. Saccone viewed this as earning revenue off the backs of the poor, but also he was wary that price hikes might encourage smuggling rings that send money to violent extremists.
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Fake Super Glue floods market
The Alteco Chemical PTE Ltd., a company that produces Alteco 11O Super Glue, has raised an alarm over the faking of its product across the country.
Mr Ifeanyi Dike, the company’s Media Consultant, said on Sunday in Onitsha that the company’s products that were faked and worth millions of naira were confiscated during several raids in Onitsha, Aba and Lagos.
Dike, who noted that over 100 shops were raided in Onitsha alone, said the raid was carried out in collaboration with the Police after obtaining Anton Pillar Order from court.
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/07/17/fake-super-glue-floods-market/
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Special Report: Illegal cigarettes easily available in rural Cork areas
Illegal cigarettes, either counterfeit or contraband, are as easily available in rural areas of Cork as they are in the city. An undercover team of operatives, led by two former senior police officers, uncovered sufficient evidence of the illegal trade in North Cork within a period of just a few hours.
One female operative, a smoker, targets licensed premises in Fermoy, Mallow and Mitchelstown and, after striking up conversations with other smokers, was provided with contact numbers for people selling cheap tobacco products.
Lear MoreTobacco smuggling shoots up by 28 per cent
The amount of tobacco smuggled into Malta grew by some 28 per cent last year, costing the Treasury about €10 million in lost revenue, an EU-wide report seen by the Sunday Times of Malta has estimated.
The study found that while the total legal consumption of cigarettes declined the amount of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes entering the Maltese market went up..
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Counterfeit goods: hotspots and why they are so dangerous
A new BBC investigation has found that the black market for counterfeit goods is doing a roaring trade, particularly in certain parts of the UK.
The most commonly-seized items are clothing and accessories, followed by mobile phone accessories, perfume and cosmetics, tobacco, electrical goods, alcohol, DVDs, vehicle parts and footwear.
Counterfeit goods are becoming more dangerous, with fraudsters faking big brand foods including chocolate bars and bottles of false shampoo.
The trade in counterfeit goods is also having an effect on British business. Many people buy fake items thinking only of the saving they are making not the fact they could be contributing to the death of small local businesses.
Lear MoreSocio-Economic Impact of Illicit Trade- Capacity Building Programme
15/7/2016 | National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics, (NACEN)
FICCI CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy) in association with the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics, (NACEN) organized a capacity building programme on the ‘Socio-Economic Impact of Illicit Trade’ on July 15that NACEN, Faridabad. The objective was to sensitize trainee officers of the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) on the ill effects of illicit trade, with special focus on the menace of smuggling, on the economy and on the society as a whole.
Ms. Reena Arya (IRS), Additional Director General, NACEN, the Chief Guest at the programme, in her welcome remarks,stated that illicit trade was a global problem of enormous scale, impacting human lives and virtually every industry sector around the world. India was no exception, suffering significant economic and health & safety consequences as a result of widespread smuggling and counterfeiting in the country. Ms. Arya lauded FICCI CASCADE’s initiative of sensitizing IRS probationers and stated that that this capacity building programme was opportune as FICCI was India’s premier trade body and the trainee officers would be the future economic guardians of the country.
Mr. P.C. Jha, Advisor, FICCI CASCADE and Ex-Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs gave a detailed overview on the Socio-Economic Impact of Illicit Trade. In his presentation Mr. Jha highlighted FICCI CASCADE’s initiatives to curb smuggling and counterfeiting through various awareness programmes engaging industry, policy makers, law enforcement officials, voluntary organizations, the youth and consumers at large. He added that that one of FICCI CASCADE’s mandates was capacity building of law enforcement agencies including for Judges, Police and Customs Officers, and CASCADE had been working extensively in this area nationally, organizing training programmes and seminars along with continuous Interactions with the law enforcement authorities to emphasize on the importance of continued awareness and seriousness of the impact of illicit goods.
Dr. John Joseph, Principal Additional Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (HQ), in his presentation, emphasized the importance of mutual cooperation with international agencies to address the issue of illicit trade and smuggling. Dr. Joseph highlighted that illicit trade bypasses all controls comprising quality, price and revenue.
The capacity building programme was also addressed by Dr. Alka Chawla, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi and Advisor, FICCI Intellectual Property Education Centre, who gave a comprehensive overview on the scope and rights of enforcement in matters relating to economic offences. Ms. Rosanna M. Vetticad, Associate Director, Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI) took the probationers through facts and figuresof the extent of the losses caused by illicit trade to government and industry. She also explained the correlation of grey market operations and tax arbitrage which were causing a huge dent to the nation’s exchequer.
The programme further accentuated how smuggling was increasingly becoming a hugely lucrative business, with criminals relying on the continued high demand for cheap goods coupled with low production and distribution costs. The illegal activities related to smuggling take advantage of unaware consumers and bargain-hunters, exploiting people’s appetites for brands or simply their financial situation. The criminal networks behind this operated across national borders in activities that include the manufacture, export, import and distribution of illicit goods. Illicit trading activities affected everyone, with Governments, businesses and society being robbed of tax revenue, business income and jobs. The markets when flooded with such goods created an enormous drain on the global economy by creating an underground trade that deprived Governments of revenue for vital public services and imposed greater burdens on taxpayers.
Subsequently, representatives from three leading industry organizations, Capt. Shakil Ahmed, General Manager, Brand Protection, USL-DIAGEO, Mr. Syed Mahmood Ahmad, Director, the Tobacco Institute of India and Mr. Pankaj Kalra, Country Manager – Customer Experience & Quality, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd shared their insights on how their industry were handlingissues related to smuggling. They also interacted actively with the officers on the ways and means to counter thisthreat.
Some of the key issues discussed were as follows:
1. Developing local intelligence is key to address the challenges related to smuggling
2. Coordinated and serious enforcement is one of the best ways to counter illegal trade in industry
3. Deterrence has to be created for effective enforcement
4. Spurious products posed a threat to health and safety due to the conditions under which they
were manufactured and the lack of regulation of their contents.
5. Industry to create and invest in a variety of brand protection measures and anti-counterfeit
programs.
6. Industry should be committed to working with law enforcement to deter any and all attacks
on its products and brand.
7. Cigarettes are among the world’s most illegally traded products. In India, illegal cigarette trade
is one fifth of total cigarette industry.Muggled and contraband cigarettes not only obstruct
country’s economic development but also undermine government’s health policy.
Mr. Dipankar Barkakati, Additional Director, FICCI proposed the Vote of Thanks.
The capacity building programme was attended by over 80 officers of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) in day-long interactive event.
FICCI CASCADE associates with NACEN to organize ‘Socio-Economic Impact of Illicit Trade’
The objective was to sensitize trainee officers of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) on the ill effects of illicit trade with special focus on the impact of smuggling on the economy, and society as a whole.
FICCI CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy) in association with the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics, (NACEN) organized a capacity building programme on the ‘Socio-Economic Impact of Illicit Trade’ on July 15 at NACEN, Faridabad. The objective was to sensitize trainee officers of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) on the ill effects of illicit trade with special focus on smuggling on the economy, and on the society as a whole.
Lear MoreSubstandard quality of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides haunts farmers.
“Agriculture department joint director from Vizianagaram district, GSNS Leelavathi told TOI that they plan to form enforcement teams to inspect the quality of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.” Taking advantage of the farmers, the private traders sell fake, illicit and substandard products to them,” Prakash explained.The farmers approach these private traders for loans due to the government not including them in the loan waiver scheme. “Mandal agriculture officer will act as the quality control inspector by collecting the samples of each product from all the traders. As the agriculture season has just begun, we took time and will implement the measures by this month,” Leelavathi said. They then black market the stock and force farmers to buy the produce.
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Turkish customs units confiscate record 3.3 million packs of smuggled cigarettes
a significant anti-smuggling operation yesterday, customs units confiscated 3.3 million packs of cigarettes on their way into Turkey onboard a ship.
The cigarettes confiscated in the operation are believed to have a market value of TL 28.5 million ($9.85 million), which would bring some TL 23 million in tax revenues if sold legally.
Acting on a tip, customs units followed the ship, which departed from the Magosa port in Turkish Cyprus with a declared route to Ukraine’s Skadovsk port. The ship, which passed through the Bosporus and went on to the Black Sea, was put under surveillance. After cruising off the Ukrainian coast for a while, the ship headed back to Istanbul.
The ship’s operators and crew declared they unloaded the ship’s freight in Ukraine and presented a document that said the same.However, Coast Guard and customs enforcement units boarded the ship and found the cigarette packs on board, which weighed some 100 tons in total.
Trader of fake cigarettes nabbed
Police and Barangay Barucboc officials in Quezon, Isabela, arrested on Wednesday a dealer of fake cigarettes who was caught selling reams of counterfeit Mighty and Marvels cigarettes to a sari-sari store.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and law enforcement agencies have been vigilant against dealers of fake products over the past few months as these do not pay the proper taxes and do not contribute to the country’s economy.
The store helper went to the barangay hall and sought the assistance of tanods after a dubious male came by to sell cartons of suspicious cigarettes to the store owner’s daughter who held the suspect pretending she was buying.The barangay officials immediately proceeded to the store and caught the 33-year-old suspect in the act of selling fake Mighty and Marvels menthol and full flavor variants to the sari-sari store.Moments later, a Mighty Corp. representative came by the store and confirmed that the cigarette variants were indeed counterfeit.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/795843/trader-of-fake-cigarettes-nabbed
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