Customs seize smuggled brown sugar worth Rs.241mn

A smuggled brown sugar consignment which had been smuggled into the country concealed in bulk and declared as white sugar worth of Rs.241 million was detected by Sri Lanka Customs and displayed to the media yesterday.

Customs Post Clearance Audit Division officials on suspicion searched a consignment of 1,200 metric tons of white sugar which had been imported from India by a local sugar importer, Customs Spokesman Director Sudaththa Silva said.

The consignment in 45 containers (20 feet) had arrived in the Colombo Port on Tuesday and the Customs sleuths found that 50% of the bulk had contained the import restricted brown sugar.

Director of Customs Compliance and Facilitation Directorate Seevali Arukgoda told the Daily Mirror that the import of brown sugar has to be done with the special permission of the Import and Export Controller General, as the brown sugar is produced in Sri Lanka abundantly.

The suspected importer, whose company had been involved in importing sugar for the past 20 years, had declared the consignment as white sugar, and they possess a licence only to import white sugar, he said. 

Customs Post Clearance Audit Division Superintendents K. Shanmugadasan and Sujeewa Pathinisekara with the team are conducting inquiries. The seized consignment of sugar was displayed to the media yesterday when State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya came to examine the contraband at a private warehouse on Biyagama Road in Peliyagoda. (KURULU KOOJANA KARIYAKARAWANA)

Pix by Kushan Pathiraja