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Illicit trade in five key industries caused the Indian exchequer a tax loss of Rs 58,521 crore, and also resulted in the loss of 1.6 million jobs, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) released on Thursday.
The report, titled ‘Illicit Markets: A Threat to Our National Interests’, pegged the size of the illicit market in the five industries – mobile phones, household and personal goods, packaged foods, tobacco products, and alcoholic beverages – at Rs 2.6 trillion in 2019-20.
According to the report by FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (CASCADE), the “two highly regulated and taxed industries, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, [accounted] for nearly 49
