New Delhi, August 16: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has broken up a major international smuggling syndicate accused of illegally importing Southeast Asian areca nuts into India under falsified origin certificates, the Union Ministry of Finance confirmed. The month-long intelligence operation uncovered a systematic tariff fraud scheme resulting in an estimated revenue loss exceeding ₹2,500 crore to the public exchequer.
According to enforcement authorities, nine key individuals associated with the syndicate have been arrested following coordinated raids across multiple locations.
“The syndicates falsely declared the areca nuts as originating from Bangladesh to fraudulently avail duty benefits under SAFTA, with the investigation so far revealing a potential revenue loss of more than Rs 2,500 crore,” the Ministry of Finance declared in an official press statement.
Standard import regulations mandate a 100 percent Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on areca nut shipments entering India. However, under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, eligible agricultural produce originating in Bangladesh qualifies for full duty exemption, provided origin requirements are strictly met. Investigators discovered that shipments sourced from Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia were routed using forged documentation to falsely claim duty-free entry.
During the nationwide search operations, DRI officers confiscated 160 metric tonnes of illegally imported areca nuts along with ₹75 lakh in unaccounted cash.
Customs enforcement units also suspended the operational license of a prominent Customs Broker firm involved in clearing a major portion of the fraudulent consignments. Senior CBIC officials maintained that further scrutiny of import ledgers and trade documentation remains underway to identify additional domestic entities linked to the network.
