Bid to smuggle cigarettes outside J-K foiled

Sleuths of the Excise Department Saturday foiled an attempt of tax evaders to smuggle cigarettes, weighing around 1,200 kilograms, outside the state when they intercepted a truck at Lakhanpur toll plaza in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

"Cigarettes attract toll tax at the rate of Rs 4,000 per quintal and evaders tried to hoodwink the toll authorities by declaring these as 'telephone goods' which attracts toll at a much lower rate of Rs 100 per quintal," a spokesman of the department said.

He said the vehicle was intercepted and seized at the export weigh bridge of the toll post near the Punjab border and recovery of Rs 5,28,000 on account of toll and penalty leviable under various sections of the J&K Levy of Toll Act was effected.