Customs Seizes Ball Bearing Consignment
The Ghaziabad customs has seized a consignment of ball bearings that was allegedly being smuggled to India from Nepal.
The consignment, said to be worth over Rs 20 lakh, was hidden in a false-bottom empty truck and was seized on Saturday last.
According to revenue department sources, this is the second such seizure by customs sleuths in less than a month and reveals a trend of smuggling of ball bearings into the country.
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Three such cases were cracked last month by the customs department and trucks were seized. In those cases, the goods had been sent to Nepal after being offloaded at Calcutta Port, where the customs authorities had issued a certificate of transit declaration (CTD) for the goods to be sent to Nepal. Officials said the proceeds from smuggling of ball bearings into the country from Nepal were used to finance the extremists in the North-East.
CTD has to be given to goods bound for Nepal since it is a land-locked country and smuggling of ball bearings is helped by the fact that no duty is levied on sale of bearings between Nepal and India.
An official said: The government should take up the matter with Nepal. There is a similar smuggling of silk which lands at Benaras.