Foreign cigarettes worth over Rs. 27.4million destroyed

11 September 2025 12:03 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 3 Bookmark

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Colombo, Sept. 11 (Daily Mirror) - A stock of foreign cigarettes worth over Rs. 27.4 million, illegally imported into the country, was destroyed at the Muthurajawela Power Plant today, the Customs Department said.

Customs officers at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake, had seized, confiscated, and destroyed 1,826,788 cigarettes smuggled into Sri Lanka between May 25 and July 20, 2025, Customs Media Spokesperson and Director of Customs, Chandana Punchihewa, confirmed.

He said if these cigarettes had entered the local market, the loss of state revenue would have amounted to approximately Rs. 205.6 million.

The cigarettes were confiscated during daily raids carried out by Customs officials at the airport. Punchihewa further noted that importing or bringing cigarettes into the country is a punishable offence under Sections 12 and 43 of the Customs Ordinance and the Tobacco Act No. 8 of 1999. Pix by Nimalsiri Edirisinghe

Comments - 3

Free Dilfin Thursday, 11 September 2025 02:40 PM

Well, why can't we make use of the confiscated cigarettes? For an instance, we can re-export and make some money.

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Dr Tissa Fernando Thursday, 11 September 2025 06:06 PM

This is just a show, but the majority of the catch gets back into the market , these cigarettes are available everywhere in the market.

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Andrew Thursday, 11 September 2025 04:39 PM

What a waste of money If I am president I would resell it through ctc Profits doubled

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