Evidence of about Tk 9 crore in revenue evasion has been found at the United Tobacco Industries Ltd. factory in Ishwardi as part of a special operation to stop the illicit production of tobacco products.

The National Board of Revenue’s VAT Intelligence and Investigation Directorate carried out the operation on Thursday, December 4.

Al Amin Sheikh, the NBR’s public relations officer, stated that the agency will maintain stringent and consistent operations to prevent the use of counterfeit banderols and the illicit manufacturing of tobacco products in order to protect national revenue.

According to sources involved in the operation, although the company has VAT registration, it had long been secretly producing and marketing cigarettes without declaring formal production. During the raid, 634,590 sticks of cigarettes with fake banderols were seized, valued at over Tk 38 lakh. The outstanding revenue owed to the government against these cigarettes amounts to around Tk 29 lakh.

Additionally, 1,029,000 pieces of unused fake banderols/stamps were recovered. If used, these could have enabled revenue evasion of more than Tk 8.5 crore. Although the company had collected 322,500 pieces of legal banderols, it did not use them and continued production with fake banderols instead.

The NBR stated that the seized cigarettes and materials have been confiscated according to law, and legal proceedings have begun against the company. A full report will be submitted soon based on the information recovered during the operation. The concerned VAT commissioner ate has also been instructed to keep the company under strict surveillance.