Revenue officers carried out a series of coordinated searches under warrant at locations across central Freetown, yesterday 18 June 2018. The searches were part of an intelligence-led operation targeting traders that are part of a network in the illicit tobacco trade. The operation was part of the NRA’s ongoing actions to disrupt the illicit tobacco supply chain, seize the contraband and prosecute those responsible.
Revenue officers caught up with a cigarette seller, Osman Barrie, along Lumley Street who they suspected was selling Bond Street and Empire cigarettes, which the Authority consider contraband.
The man was caught with five gross of Empire and one gross of Bond Street cigarettes disguised in Ducal packaging and were sold discretely to customers. The National Revenue Authority (NRA) arrested him including two cartons of legal cigarettes he was selling. Barrie is currently helping the Authority with information regarding the source of the contraband.
Manager Collection and Compliance, Mohamed Mansaray, who led the NRA team, said the reason why they asked Barrie to pack all his cigarettes both legal and illegal is because he was caught with contraband thereby rendering all his business illegal.
“If you had a shop we would have easily sealed it but we can’t now because you are selling out in the open, so if we leave it here it’s as if we didn’t take any distress action.” Adding that they want to protect those that are importing cigarettes legally. Barrie he said will pay all the taxes that he was supposed to pay as evading tax is a crime.
Barrie insisted that he cannot remember the person that sold him the contraband as they were moving from one table to another. He said he bought his stock three months ago. “If you open the Bond Street, you will see that it is already having black dots on it which shows that it has taken a long time with me.”
This led the Deputy Commissioner of Domestic Tax Department (DTD) Moo-usa Salia-Konneh to inform Barrie that selling an expired product is also a crime. “You are not our target as we are after the source. If you do not talk we will not leave you and we will assume that you imported the contraband, so we will deal with you full time,” said the Deputy Commissioner.
Deputy Commissioner Salia-Konneh, went further to say that the importer of Bond Street cigarettes has stopped the business, which means that if anyone is found selling it in the streets is a crime. He went further to say that the ones that are brought to Sierra Leone are the ones meant for Liberia, which means no excise tax was paid for the cigarettes. He warned Barrie that failing to divulge the source will leave the Authority with no option than to apply the laws accordingly.
The Deputy Commissioner accentuated that Barrie knew what he was doing was illegal that is why he displayed the illegal ones in the pack of legal cigarettes. “You knew exactly what you were doing, so why do you need to hide it if you don’t know?”
The country, Salia-Konneh said, is losing over Le500million every month on smuggled cigarettes. People who are defaulting and smuggling are creating business challenges for those who bring in their goods through legal means.
Penalties range from Le5 million, three times the value of the goods seized and/or jail terms depending on the evidence and situation.
ZJ/18/6/18
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque
Tuesday June 19, 2018.
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