Smuggling of goods taking place in collusion with customs officials

Published On: December 25, 2022 09:15 AM NPT By: Madan Thakur

RAUTAHAT, Dec 25: It has been found that the customs offices are involved in smuggling of goods across the Nepal-India border.

Recently, after the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force stepped up efforts to control smuggling, it seems that the smugglers have started colluding with the customs offices to smuggle goods.

It has been revealed that goods worth millions of rupees were smuggled out of Gaur customs without paying the customs duty.

A vehicle with goods from Bairagania, India, was briefly stopped at the customs office. The vehicle arrived at the customs office with goods and entered Gaur Bazar directly from the customs office without paying customs duty. Even the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force deployed at the customs office did not inquire about the vehicle because it was dealt with by the customs officials.

A joint police team deployed from District Police Office Rautahat and Area Police Office Chandranigahpur seized clothes worth around a million rupees, which were being smuggled from India to Nepal through the inner road section of Chandrapur Municipality-6 by evading customs duty. The vehicle carrying illegal goods had reportedly passed the customs checkpoint but did not have documents of customs clearance. This clearly suggests that the smugglers are importing goods in collusion with customs officials.

According to DSP Umashankar Prasad Yadav, information officer for the District Police Office, Rautahat, the police seized clothes worth around Rs 997,850 including woolen kurta, gents kurta, suruwal and lehenga and ready-made clothes. Yadav said it seems that the vehicle with the goods left the customs office in collusion with the customs office on Thursday afternoon.

Customs revenue is being collected much less than the target due to rampant cross-border smuggling in collusion with the customs officials. In the last five months, the Gaur customs office has collected revenue only a little more than half of the target.

Experts say that the customs revenue is drying up after the customs officials started making huge money by smuggling goods from India.