Bali flooded with black-market cigs

Ngurah Rai customs officers are currently hunting a suspect who allegedly plays a central role in the distribution of tens of thousands of cigarette packets with counterfeited excise tax stickers in Bali. The suspect, identified only as DL, is believed to be in Malang, East Java.
So far investigating officers have arrested four other suspects in the case.
One of the responsibilities of the Customs and Excise Office is the collection of taxes from cigarette companies. It does this by exclusively printing and issuing excise stickers that cigarette companies must purchase for each individual pack produced.
The investigation began after custom officers noticed the widespread circulation of cigarettes without excise tax stickers in September. The packets, found in a Papuan traditional market in Tabanan regency, had forged stickers.
"Our undercover officers managed to set up a transaction with the suppliers. They led us to another suspect in Negara, Jembrana regency. He later brought us to some small-scale cigarette packing facilities in Malang and Jember," investigating officer Hanny Fisher Palilingan said on Monday.
Hanny said the man from Negara was only a second layer player in the business. The mastermind is believed to be somewhere around Malang.
Throughout the investigation the officers confiscated 39,153 packs of cigarettes with fake excise tax stickers, 32,207 packs with no sticker at all and 1,610 packs with incorrect stickers. They also seized 30 rolls of forged stickers from a cigarette factory in Jember.
Jusuf Indarto, director of control and investigations at the Jakarta customs and excise office, said forgeries and sales of illegal cigarettes would increase if the government did not immediately ban the sale of old cigarette machines.
"The old machines are sold to individuals who illegally produce cigarettes. These people rake huge profits because cigarettes are in high demand, since many people smoke everywhere," he said, adding that the production is usually done in Java with the illegal cigarettes later distributed elsewhere.
According to the 2004 national socioeconomic survey, about 138.82 million Indonesians are smokers, or 63.1 percent of a total population of 220 million people at the time.
Jusuf said the government's income from the tobacco excise tax has reached Rp 47 trillion (US$4.7 billion), an increase of 12.1 percent on last year. The increase was achieved after customs and excise officers tightened their investigations on illegal cigarettes.
In October the customs and excise officers also confiscated 4000 liters of bootlegged alcohol and 3,500 liters of liqueurs and vodka hoarded in Denpasar without any legal excise documents.
Bambang Wahyudi, head of Ngurah Rai's customs and excise supervision and service office said his officers had questioned the owners of a leading local company, who were allegedly responsible for hoarding the alcohol.
"We have sealed the company temporarily and fined it Rp 660 million. I hope local liqueur producers do not run from their responsibility to pay the excise because their products are more marketable now, with the difficulties in importing liqueur," he said.
The office also confiscated some 700 smuggled mobile phones found in an unclaimed suitcase at the airport's foreign arrival terminal in July.
"According to the baggage documents, the luggage belongs to Raj Sudhahar of India, who flew from Hong Kong, China," Nurkiswar Eddy, head of prevention and investigation said, adding that the perpetrator had yet to be found.