Massive tea export racket bared

Sarath Malalasekera

The Customs Intelligence Division uncovered a massive low quality tea export racket being carried out with several forged documents, following the detection of four shipments, which are not permitted by the Sri Lanka Tea Board for export.

The market value of the four shipments is Rs. 80 million.

The Customs Intelligence Division also arrested six suspects including two wharf clerks and four leading businessmen of Colombo. The companies which attempted to export these containers are not registered with the Customs and with the Tea Board, a Senior Customs Officer told the Daily News yesterday.

Customs investigations are being conducted by the Intelligence Division of the Customs on the direction of Customs Director General Sudharma Karunaratne and Customs Additional Director General Jazeel.

Customs investigations revealed that due to rackets of this type being carried out the government loses revenue and the country valuable foreign exchange income since the remittances for these exports do not come through banking channels. Those involved in this racket will use this money for illegal transactions such as, narcotics, drugs, weapons or terrorist activities, internationally.

Customs investigations also revealed even if the proceeds from sales for these exports come to Sri Lanka, it will adversely affect the economy since such money will be coming into the country as black money and it will not be used for legal activities. Thereby, the State again will lose its revenue by way of income Tax and VAT.

"It is suspected that these illegal exports had been done for a long period, and if this were continued the whole tea export industry in the country could have been in danger," Customs investigators said.

Although these export shipments were bound for Iran, Customs is investigating the past records to detect whether any shipments were exported to Europe which is the country's main tea purchasing zone.

"With this detection, Customs was able to safeguard the tea export industry and also the good name of Sri Lanka in the world," a Senior Customs Officer said.

The Customs is also conducting investigations to ascertain whether any other companies in the country are involved in this massive tea export racket. Customs Director C N Rajaratnam, Deputy Director U Liyanage, Superintendents J A S Jayakody, Narendra Fernando, Ranjan, Thimal, Sampath Dehigaspage and Balsooriya are assisting in the investigations.