A month‑long intelligence op around Kolkata and Visakhapatnam led to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) uncovering a large-scale illegal use of SAFTA duty concessions in areca nut imports.
According to the Union Ministry of Finance, the recent investgation revealed that certain syndicates were importing areca nuts from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and other South‑East Asian countries but declaring them as of Bangladeshi origin to obtain full customs duty exemption under South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).
Normally, areca nuts classified under HS 0802.80 attract a basic customs duty of 100 per cent, making them one of the more heavily taxed agricultural imports into India.
But under SAFTA, goods originating in Bangladesh and meeting prescribed “rules of origin” criteria can enter India at zero duty in a bid to encourage regional trade.
The DRI probe revealed that the masterminds allegedly routed consignments through an export processing zone in Bangladesh. Then they just changed containers and bags before shipping the nuts to India as Bangladeshi produce.
DRI officers seized about 160 tonnes of areca nuts and roughly ₹75 lakh in cash believed to be linked to the fraud, and have so far arrested nine people.
The Centre also noted that the investigating team deduced the use of hawala channels and dummy firms to move and layer financial proceeds.
The licence of the customs broker that cleared most of the suspect imports has been suspended, noted the ministry.
