A team of airport customs officials have arrested two passengers with a stock of foreign made cigarettes worth Rs. 4,175 million illegally brought into Sri Lanka, at the arrival terminal of the Katunayake Airport, on Thursday night (25).
One of these passengers is a 21-year-old resident of Polonnaruwa area. While he was returning from Dubai where he had gone to meet his relative, he had illegally brought this stock of foreign manufactured cigarettes.
In addition, a 44-year-old resident of Thalawathugoda, Colombo, who had been engaged in an industrial profession in Dubai, had brought a stock of cigarettes illegally, as well. The two of them had arrived at Katunayake Airport on July 25 at 5:00p.m., from Dubai on flight F.Z.-549 of Fly Dubai Airlines.
The two of them had illegally brought in 207 cigarette cartons containing 41,400 “Manchester” brand, foreign manufactured cigarettes hidden in their luggage.
Under the Tobacco Tax Act No. 08 of 1999 and the amended Tobacco Tax Act No. 09 of 2004, it is strictly prohibited to import cigarettes or tobacco products into Sri Lanka without a proper license.
If these two somehow managed to take these stocks of cigarettes out of the Katunayake airport and sold them in the open market, the Sri Lankan government would have lost a tax income of 3.2 million rupees.
The formal customs investigation had been conducted by Senior Deputy Director of Customs Ruchira Weerasekera, and the stocks of cigarettes the two individuals tried to bring into Sri Lanka were confiscated, and they were warned and released.
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