DSI joined forces with Excise Office Region 9, Regional Customs Office, and Songkhla Provincial Police to raid/seize illegal foreign cigarettes and liquor evading tax payment valued at 500 million baht damage

DSI joined forces with Excise Office Region 9, Regional Customs Office, and Songkhla Provincial Police to raid/seize illegal foreign cigarettes and liquor evading tax payment valued at 500 million baht damage

       After obtaining clues from the informant about the gang smuggling goods into the Kingdom in Songkhla Province by evading tax payment, the DSI, therefore, investigated and discovered the group of persons smuggling contraband cigarettes and liquor from abroad into the kingdom without legal tax payment, regarded as the offences under the Excise Act, B.E. 2560, the Customs Act, B.E. 2560, and other relevant laws, damaging the national economic system and security and impacting the state’s revenue collections.

       Mr. Triyarith Temahivong (Director-General) assigned Pol.Maj. Yuthana Praedam (Deputy Director-General) supervising the Security Crime Bureau and the Regional Operation Bureau to order Mr. Thawewat Surasit (Director of Bureau of Security Crime), Mr. Mahesak Punsanga (Director of Bureau of Regional Operation), Mr. Nattapon Netrabukkana (Head of Security Crime Division 2), and the inquiry official team to travel to the said province for search and seizure of the exhibits in the suspected areas.

       On March 1, 2022, the officers of the DSI, the Excise Department, the Customs Department, the Royal Thai Police and the Department of Provincial Administration, equipped with search warrants issued by Songkhla Provincial Court, raided 3 commercial buildings and warehouses storing contraband in Songkhla Province. From the raids, the search team seized 851,460 packs of foreign cigarettes (approximately 50 million baht of tax value and 500 million baht fine), 3,296 bottles of foreign liquor (approximately 900,000 baht of tax value and 9 million baht fine) and 3,168 decks of playing cards (approximately 50,000 baht of tax value and 500,000 baht fine) imported into the Kingdom without tax payment and customs clearance. The total damage to the state amounted to 560,450,000 baht (five hundred sixty million four hundred fifty thousand baht only). Its was regarded as the offences under the Excise Act, B.E. 2560, the Customs Act, B.E. 2560, and other relevant laws. The inquiry official team will further investigate the case and bring the offenders to legal proceedings.

       The DSI commits itself to prosecute against offenders, who smuggled goods into the Kingdom, by integrating its works with law enforcement agencies, namely, the Excise Department, the Customs Department and the Royal Thai Police, to ensure fairness, transparency and confidence for the honest tax-paying entrepreneurs, to implement indirect supplementary measures to take care of health of the people consuming safe, acceptable goods, and to bring about tax collection fairness for the protections of society and interests of the state.

Dated March 2, 2022