The civic body’s surprise raids against traders evading octroi netted more than Rs1 crore in October.
The vigilance wing of the octroi department has deputed special squad at stations on all three railway lines as it found that traders sneak out goods in small quantity in plastic bags. Last week, the Government Railway Police nabbed two octroi officials for undervaluing gutkha for over a period of time and causing heavy losses to the civic body.
The BMC has started aggressive raids on western, central and harbour lines.
“A team of 17 officers is conducting surprise raids at these stations. They keep on changing their location each day according to the tip-off,” said a senior vigilance officer.
“In a bid to avoid octroi, traders sneak out goods through trains as it is an economically viable option as compared to roads. They ask their men to carry the goods in small quantity in big plastic bags instead of huge cartons which would attract our attention. But this time around, we are checking every bag, leaving no scope for them to evade octroi,” said a senior vigilance official from the octroi department.
“More than Rs60 crore has been collected from Western Railway and the rest from the central and harbour line stations,” said the official.
A senior octroi official, who is part of the squad, said the items which were seized such as imitation jewellery, electrical decoration items, towel sets and garments were for sale during Diwali.
These goods were confiscated from Borivli, Dadar, Grant Road, Charni Road, Marine Lines, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Chembur, Mankhurd and Wadala. “These are the stations where the market for the goods exist,” added the officer.
Revenue loss
GRP arrested two octroi inspectors last week for allowing gutkha to be sneaked in and undervaluing the consignment. The banned pan masala costs around Rs450 to Rs500 per kg. The officials put the value at Rs20 per kg. Every month, more then one lakh packages were released without charging any octroi duty pegging the revenue loss at Rs6.5 crore
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