JOIN USActing upon concrete intelligence, the Headquarters Prevention Unit (HPU) of the Customs has taken into possession a Hayabusa and a Suzuki, two Kawasakis –– Ninja and Intruder –– three Yamaha R-6 and two Yamaha R-1 in the last four months.
The estimated value of these bikes, a senior official said: “...Is between Rs 9 lakh and Rs 12 lakh each. And this is just the value of the bike. The import duty, penalty on evasion, all put together will run into crores.”
Import of a new motorcycle has a Customs duty of at least 160 per cent, while spare parts have a duty of 24 per cent.
“We could not have done this without our informants who not only co-operated with us to help us know the way these bikes are smuggled, but also provided us with accurate information on such bikes in the City,” the official said. The official said they had information that there are several smuggled bikes in Bangalore and that the City is becoming a hub for smuggled bikes.
Bike owners duped
Most of the bikes, sources said, were seized from homes of the owners and their investigation has found that the owners in almost all the cases have also been victims of the racketeers. Most of the seized bikes have documents, the official said “But they were either forged or documents pertained to only some parts of the bike or the whole bike,” he added.
In some cases, he explained, there were documents for the engine, or the chassis, but the bike was sold in entirety. The official refused to name the owners of the bikes stating that they were also victims of the racket.
However, they confirmed that there were no big shots from the City, who were in possession of the smuggled bikes, unlike in Mumbai, where the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recently seized 73 smuggled bikes from owners, including actor Ajay Devgan.
Kingpins still at large
Although the department has not been able to get to the bottom of the racket, officials say they have also written to customs offices in other states.
“It is difficult to find the king-pins of such rackets as the buyers and sellers in Bangalore have little idea about where exactly the bike is coming from,” another official said. The bikes also lacked legal registration numbers and most of them bore Maharashtra registration numbers, while one was from Nagaland.
There are reports from Mumbai that parts of such bikes are brought in through Singapore and assembled here.
RTOs should verify with customs
Stating that the seizures are not the end of the smuggling racket, Customs Commissioner B Bhattacharya said the matter has been taken up with the State Government.
“To prevent smuggling of such bikes we have asked the RTOs not to register the bikes before the Customs gives a no-objection certificate,” he said.
Expressing concern over the seizure, he said: “I do not know why people still fall prey to such deals as the Centre has now relaxed the norms and it is completely legal to import bikes in the range of 1,000-cc... The Harley Davidson is doing that!”