Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
New Delhi, 24 September 2003:

Four truckloads of betel nuts and dry ginger said to have been imported from
Burma were seized by the Customs Department in Patna, the capital of Bihar
State, India, during the past three weeks, according to customs sources in India.

There were, however, differing reports on the origin of the goods. According
to the owners, the goods were imported from Myanmar (Burma) and bound for
Delhi. However, the Patna customs officials who had seized the consignments
maintained that these goods were illegally imported from Malaysia and bound
for Nepal. Speaking to Mizzima News, D. D. Ingty, Commissioner of Customs
(Northeast India), confirmed that the seized goods had not imported from
Burma but from Malaysia to Nepal via Calcutta port. “The documents the traders showed, however, claimed that these goods were imported from Myanmar.”

The owners alleged that the goods had been seized even though they had produced the required import documents, which show that the goods were imported via Moreh across the border trade route from Burma.

One of the consignment’s owners, L. Sanu Singh, has written to Union Finance
Minister Jaswant Singh, charging the Patna customs officials with attempting
to fabricate a smuggling case against the traders.

In strong protest against this “illegal” seizure of the goods, the Moreh Chamber of Commerce decided to indefinitely close down the Land Customs Station at Moreh, which borders with Tamu, Burma.

The Indo-Burma border trade, which was officially legalized by a trade agreement between India and Burma in 1994, proceeds mainly via Moreh in Manipur state, India and Tamu in Sagaing Division, Burma.

The Customs (Preventive) Headquarters in Patna previously seized two truckloads of betel nuts (a total of 30 metric tons) on 31 August and two truckloads of betel nuts (30 metric tons) and 9,590 kg of dry ginger on 15 September.

Meanwhile, a two-day seminar on bilateral border trade between India and
Burma ended in Moreh on 21 September.