Interactive Session on ‘Illicit Trade – A Threat to our National Interests, Ahmedabad
10/9/2015 | Ahmedabad
In order to highlight the magnitude of illicit trade activities such as counterfeiting and smuggling, FICCI CASCADE organized a press conference, preceding the seminar, on ‘Illicit Trade – A Threat to our National Interest’ on October 9th, 2015 in Ahmedabad. Mr. S. S. Trivedi, IGP (EOW, CID Crime), Government of Gujarat was the key speaker at the press conference. Mr. Trivedi stated that the Gujrat police was very serious about taking action on such unlawful activities and urged the consumers to not only boycott illicit products but to cooperate with police to tackle the issue. Both the events were well covered my media.
Grimsby store owner fined £4k over stash of illicit cigarettes and tobacco
A SHOP owner has been fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £685 in costs and charges after Trading Standards officers from North East Lincolnshire Council found illicit cigarettes and tobacco during three separate visits.
DarbasMallah Hassan, 28, former owner of the Cornershop Newsagent and Slavika in Freeman Street, Grimsby, pleaded guilty to ten offences under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and Trade Marks Act 1994 at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court .
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Food: counterfeiting cost 4bln a year
SEPTEMBER 9 – Each year fake food products and tobacco smuggling cost the legal market four billion euros and over 20,000 jobs in Italy, according to Confagricoltura. The alarm was raised at a congress organized at Milan Expo 2015 together with the Open foundation.
”Buying counterfeited or smuggled products means not only consuming things that can damage health, but also causing economic damage to the country in terms of loss of revenue and employment, as well as to the productive system in general”.
Lear MoreIllicit tobacco trade flourishing in Canterbury-Bankstown, where there are higher than average smoking rates
THE Canterbury-Bankstown area is a hotspot for the illegal tobacco trade because smoking rates are higher in lower socio-economic areas.
The tobacco industry says the latest 12.5 per cent tobacco excise increase will only fuel the growth of black market trade.
But Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash has described the claims as “scaremongering by cigarette giants”.
Lear MoreIndia’s counterfeit market grows
Counterfeit and smuggled products account for over one fifth of India’s FMCG market according to a study which says sales of fake goods are growing at a faster rate than the overall market.
A report from industry body FICCI and consultancy firm KPMG said that the counterfeit market was increasing at 44% a year, around four times the speed of the FMCG market; it was estimated to be worth some Rs 1.05 lakh crore in 2014.
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Cigarette haul worth £500,000 intercepted by HMRC officers
Two men from Hounslow have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling £500,000 worth of cigarettes concealed in washing machines. The men, aged 38 and 41, were arrested on Friday (September 4) following a tobacco smuggling operation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
A third man, aged 46 and from Poland, has also been arrested.
Officers from HMRC seized 2.5m cigarette cartons, which had arrived from Poland, from a self-storage unit in Twickenham.
Lear MoreVietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival lantern makers hurt by Chinese copycats
While the Mid-Autumn Festival market in Vietnam is often filled with cheap, low-quality Chinese lanterns, local producers this year face yet another headache from the foreign rivals, who are selling low-cost imitations of their new products.
Vietnamese parents have switched to buying locally made lanterns for their kids in recent years, when awareness of the poor quality, and sometimes toxicity, of Chinese-made products had been significantly enhanced.
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Custom deploys 11 gunboats to fight piracy, smuggling
The Nigerian Custom Service (NCS) said it has deployed 11 gunboats to fight pirates and smugglers within the Western waterways comprising Lagos and Ogun states respectively, saying that the Service was forced to deploy its gunboats following the increasing number of pirates who have resorted to the use of the waterways to carry out their criminal activities.
The Custom Area Controller (CAC), Western Marine Command, Umar Yusuf made this disclosure in Lagos at a public destruction of about 2,000 cartons of imported frozen products. The products were said to have been seized by operatives of the command on Sunday and Monday at Badagry area of Lagos.
Lear MoreHome briefs: Cigarette smuggling attempt foiled
A 42-year-old Malaysian man’s attempt to smuggle into Singapore 4,050 boxes of contraband cigarettes and 150 bundles of tobacco in a container truck was stopped at the Tuas Checkpoint on Saturday. The total duty and goods and services tax due on the items amounted to $419,000, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said yesterday.
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/home-briefs-cigarette-smuggling-attempt-foiled
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Over a fifth of FMCG products in India are fake or smuggled
Walk down the public bridge of any local railway station here or any other city for that matter and it is not uncommon to find popular consumer products available dirt cheap. But before you rush to make a purchase, consider it might be a fake.
Despite the war mounted by fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies on counterfeiting, the menace hardly seems to have abated. A recent study by advisory firm KPMG and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) shows sales of fake consumer goods are growing faster than the overall consumer products market.
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