Border crackdown pays off

Border crackdown pays off

By Si Thu Lwin   |   Monday, 24 June 2013

A crackdown on cross-border smuggling has netted an extra US$386 million in trade revenues so far this financial year, the government announced last week.

U Nyunt Aung, an official at the Ministry of Commerce's department of consumer protection, said mobile teams deployed to suppress illegal trading have been so effective that legal trade is rising and more revenues are being collected.

"We seized K5.25 billion of goods, such as hand phones, electrical equipment, playing cards and frozen meat," he said, adding that the goods had been destroyed.

During a grace period from November 1 to December 31 last year, the teams seized 22 illegal consignments with an estimated value of more than K150 million on the Muse-Mandalay route and another 49 consignments with an estimated value of more than K300 million on the Myawaddy-Yangon route.

Since the beginning of this year, 477 consignments of illegally imported foreign goods worth more than K2.5 billion have been seized on the Muse-Mandalay route. Between Myawaddy and Yangon, 804 consignments worth more than K1 billion have been seized.

The raids were led by the Department of Border Trade, along with customs, police, regional administration and Border Trade Association officials.

Responsibility for cracking down on smuggling on the Muse-Mandalay route was transferred to the Shan State government on June 14.

"Through collaboration between many departments, the volume of legal trade is rising, so the crackdown is a success," said Shan State Chief Minister U Sao Aung Myat.

Translated by Zar Zar Soe

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/06/28/border-crackdown-pays-off/