KOCHI: As tonnes of relief materials for the flood-affected are arriving from abroad through seaports and airports, the Central agencies have upped their surveillance following inputs that rackets are making using of the opportunity to smuggle in contraband and divert the imported relief materials to open market for sale.
The agencies, mainly Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs, are strictly monitoring the inflow of the consignments since the rackets are suspected to be operating hand in glove with their agents abroad to smuggle in specific items under the cover of relief materials.
“A lot of consignments are coming in from various countries. The District Collectors of Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode are the authorities to accept the consignments as per a state government notification (59/2018). However, consignments like food, blanket, medicine and clothes for relief are given duty exemption under a Central notification and any third party agency can accept it. We suspect the rackets are diverting these consignments to other locations,” officers said.
Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar said they couldn’t rule out the possibility of rackets making use of available options to smuggle in items and divert goods.
“Smugglers and fraudulent rackets are always on the lookout for different ways to carry out their activities,” he said. The Customs has been clearing the consignments without any delay once they receive clearance certificate from the district administration, he said.
Already, two Revenue officers were arrested from Wayanad for smuggling out relief materials at Panamaram. “The rackets might have already entered into an unholy alliance with the government officers for smooth run of their activities,” said a state intelligence officer.