Goa: A massive racket of sale of illegally imported and non tax paid contraband cigarettes has spread its roots across Goa, now threatening the coast and the towns.
Margao town is severely affected, as many college students have shifted to cheaper contraband cigarettes over the legal branded ones, increasing the vulnerability to the problem even more. The contraband cigarettes not only affect the users but also the Government revenue, as the State suffers tax loss because of these illegal imported cigarettes. People in this trade say that the increase in tax has had an inverse effect on the sale of cigarettes, wherein the cheaper option which is even more deadly is being preferred.
Over ten years back the display of cigarette brands and posters was discontinued in Goa to counter the ill effects of tobacco use. After this ban on advertising there have been constant efforts to keep the public use of cigarettes at bay. GoaCAN is one of the NGOs that have been assisting several of these programs and raids.
The influx of imported contraband cigarette brands in the market do not fulfil government norms, and are causing huge losses to the legal businesses as well as health damage to the users of these products. According to a market study, the youngsters – mostly college students – are falling prey to these cheap Chinese and Dubai imported cigarettes. TNV took a round of the cigarette sellers in Margao town where the cigarettes of these five to six contraband brands were seen being sold openly. These cigarettes are being sold at Rs.70 compared to Rs.246 for the legal cigarettes brand which has 80% of warning display.
“The cigarette packets do not have any maximum retail price (MRP) or the packaged date (PKD. Dt) and do not have any signs of warnings. While the government mandate is to cover 80 percent of the packet with warnings these contraband cigarettes are being sold in total violation of this mandate,” said the GoaCAN Convenor Roland Martins.
The Government is totally in the dark over this racket. The State Government has not been able to differentiate and ascertain the loss of the revenue due to the increase in taxation and meanwhile is losing out big time on the sale of contraband cigarettes. The marketing of these smuggled contraband cigarettes has killed the legal cigarettes market of South Goa and has resulted in 70 percent decline of the legal sale. “The entire VAT (value added tax) on the sale of these smuggled cigarettes is lost by the Government,” said distributor of ITC, Vishant Pankar. The market of these contrabands has reached over 30 to 40 percent of South Goa. “The display and sale market has been captured by these brands,” said Pankar. The Goa Government is getting 25 percent of VAT from the sale of the legal cigarettes. There needs to be awareness and education of the retailers who are the first buyers of these cigarettes,” said Pankar.
In Margao the Gandhi Market has become the centre of the wholesale distribution and sale of these contraband cigarettes. They are being sold with stickers that say ‘Duty paid’, and no one seems to know where they come from. The situation is worse in North Goa. There are appointed men in Goa who go around the State selling these smuggled imported cigarettes. According to some of the cigarette sellers and distributors of Indian Trading Corporation (ITC) the imported cigarette sellers have developed a better network then them.
The section 5 and 7 of COTPA Act empowers the Police and the Mamlatdar to take action against the sellers of these imported illegal cigarettes and they can be fined up to 10,000 rupees. But the police and the authorities are seen imposing fines of 200 rupees for non display of boards at shops and not cracking down on the bigger violation of these contraband cigarettes sale.
It may be recalled that the Commissioner of Customs, Goa, on February 25 midnight, foiled an attempt to smuggle 350 cartons of foreign cigarettes in a container at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) valued at 2.36 crore.
The officials during the course of the first check examination of the container, from Dubai, detected 350 cartons of Dunhill and Djarum Black brand cigarettes the same which are now sold openly in all the towns of Goa. In yet another haul at Kochi, the Directorate of Revenue had seized cigarettes of worth over 2 crores. The cigarettes, 6560 cartons in number, of the brand Gudang Garam were seized here. These are some of the many brands which have captured the Indian market and have become a headache for legal businesses.
According to available information other airports and ports of India are also hosts of these consignments and these cigarettes come to Goa through Hubli, Bangalore and other ports and airports. The Dabolim Airport is stringent and any such illegal influx is promptly stopped.
As there is no information or track of the entire network of these contraband sales, the Government and the law enforcement agencies have an uphill task on cracking down of these illegalities. Going by the details which are now surfacing, the entire business and discipline has gone for a toss and the businessmen in the trade are expecting it to get worse in the days ahead.

Team TNV