Cape Town – Sars officials and police arrested four men driving trucks loaded with illicit cigarettes valued at R43 million at the Beitbridge border post on Monday.
Sars and the SAPS confirmed that four people were arrested, and criminal cases opened with regard to dealing contraband cigarettes.
This was after a total 1 211 master boxes of illicit cigarettes with brands of Remington Gold, Chelsea and Royal Express, with an estimated value of R43m were seized.
Four trucks, a bakkie and a tractor with a trailer, carrying the illicit cigarettes were impounded.
“A huge volume of cigarettes will be destroyed, in total 2 000 master cases or 20 million cigarettes, which means that the destruction of the illicit and smuggled cigarettes is likely to last a few days,” said Sars deputy commissioner, Johnstone Makhubu.
“SARS today (Monday) began to destroy the illicit and smuggled cigarettes, valued at R43m at the Beitbridge border post,” Makhubu said.
Makhubu further said that Sars’s customs division has the strategic intent of promoting voluntary compliance among taxpayers and traders.
“This means that Sars has strategic objectives to make it easy and simple to comply, provide information and education for clarity and certainty, and to make it hard and costly for those who wilfully refuse to comply.
“Sars has zero tolerance for persons or organisations involved in tax crimes or illicit trade, and that Sars will pursue them relentlessly,” Makhubu said.
Makhubu added that the illicit trade robbed the government of much-needed revenue and destroys industries – exacerbating unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
“These illicit products which are being imported or exported include second-hand motor vehicles, poultry, clothing, leather and textiles, essential infrastructure (copper and steel) and gold, among others.
“An inter-agency working group has been set up to deal with all aspects of illicit trade,” Makhunu said.
Customs and excise director Beyers Theron, said as part of its far-sighted planning, customs has put in place measures to grant benefits to compliant traders through the accredited economic operator model.
“These benefits include cost-savings and quicker turnaround times, among others. Similarly, Sars is busy implementing smart border technology to increase its detection capability and response to non-compliance.
“Since the inception of its co-ordinated and focused investigations customs has been conducting over the past three years in the tobacco and cigarette industry, there has been a noticeable shift to increased cross-border smuggling using “runners”.
“These are not individuals smuggling these cigarettes as an entrepreneurial opportunity, but organised criminal syndicates exploiting the unemployed and the poor by employing individuals as runners to carry illicit goods, often for miles, across borders, Theron said.
IOL