3 crore cigarette stamps in former CCC 'Councilor Liton's' warehouse

  • Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com, Chattogram
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3 crore cigarette stamps in former CCC 'Councilor Liton's' warehouse

3 crore cigarette stamps in former CCC 'Councilor Liton's' warehouse

A team of the Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate has seized around 3.5 crore illegal cigarette stamps from a warehouse in a building in Ramna residential area of Halishahar in Chattogram city.

These were seized from the resident's Al Farid building in a special operation of about 4 hours from Thursday (October 17) afternoon.

বিজ্ঞাপন

Customs VAT and Customs Intelligence team jointly conducted this operation under the investigation committee formed under the direction of the then Director General of Customs Intelligence Fakhrul Alam.

In the raid, 3 crore 37 lakh 50 thousand pieces of cigarette stamps, 148 white big rolls, 425 white small rolls, 126 black big rolls and 1 thousand 37 black small rolls were seized from the warehouse on the ground floor of the building.

According to the raid and local sources, the owner of that warehouse is Chattogram City Corporation former panel mayor, councilor and Awami League leader Abdus Sabur Liton and his brother Abdul Mannan Khokon. Both brothers lived in the building next to the warehouse. Liton was elected councilor from Rampura ward number 25 and was nominated as the panel mayor. Since August 5, Abdus Sabur Liton has been absconding like the top leaders of Awami League.

Mosammat Ayesha Siddiqa, Deputy Director of the Chattogram Regional Office of the Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation confirmed the operation.

He said, NBR formed a committee to identify the existing irregularities in this sector including import of raw materials for making cigarettes and illegal use of these and production of counterfeit cigarettes and to take preventive measures. This committee is taking action against those involved in creating chaos in the cigarette sector including revenue evasion. This campaign has been conducted in its continuation.

The deputy director of the agency also said that the seized materials were used to make fake cigarettes and involved in creating chaos in the cigarette sector along with revenue evasion. Necessary legal action against those involved in hoarding is under process.

Officials involved in the investigation said that the seized materials were used to manufacture different brands of cigarettes, including counterfeit cigarettes of foreign brands like Oris and Easy Lights. And manufactured cigarettes were sold in the markets of different cities of the country including Riazuddin Bazar in Chattogram. A large part of the country's illegal cigarette market was controlled by two companies named 'Bijoy International Tobacco' and 'Tara International Tobacco' owned by Abdus Sabur Liton and his brother Abdul Mannan Khokon.

Cigarettes manufactured in these factories were fitted with fake band rolls. A team of VAT detectives investigated and found the truth of these a few years ago. However, due to the influence of a Minister of the then Awami government, NBR could not take action against Liton.