Customs seize Rs. 150 m worth items

22 January 2013 04:31 pm

Colombo Port Customs seized cigarettes, shoes, cheese and cigarette lighters valued at around Rs.150 million which had been brought down from the Middle East recently.

The large haul of contraband cigarettes and the rest of the items were detected inside a 20 foot container by the Customs Special Operations and Investigations Unit headed by Customs Director Mali Piyasena.

During the past three years 78 million cigarette sticks worth Rs.1.2 billion was imported illegally to Sri Lanka which if not detected, would have cost the government Rs.2.3 billion in unpaid taxes.

The seized cigarettes would be destroyed in front of officers and representatives of the Customs, Excise Department, National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol and the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC). (Supun Dias)






Pix by Kushan Pathiraja