DRI uncovers Rs 2,500 crore areca nut duty evasion racket

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has uncovered a large-scale racket that evaded over Rs 2,500 crore in customs duty by falsely declaring areca nuts from South-East Asia as Bangladeshi-origin to claim SAFTA benefits. Nine people have been arrested, and about Rs 75 lakh in cash and 160 metric tonnes of areca nuts seized, the Ministry of Finance said on Sunday.

Syndicates allegedly sourced areca nuts from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, routed them through an export processing zone in Bangladesh, repacked them and used fraudulent SAFTA certificates of origin to import them duty-free. The DRI also recovered evidence of hawala transactions and dummy entities used to layer proceeds. Searches were conducted in Kolkata and Visakhapatnam.

The ministry said the fraudulent imports not only caused substantial revenue loss but also hurt domestic areca nut growers and legitimate traders by distorting prices. The Customs Broker licence of a firm involved has been suspended. The investigation is continuing.