Page 104 - DRI ANNUAL REPORT EBOOK

DRI is the leading intelligence agency mandated to enforce Customs laws. It works to secure India's national and economic security by preventing Duty-evasion and misuse of Incentives given to Trade for Import and Export. Sections 111(d) & 113(d) of the Customs Act 1962 provide for confiscation of improperly imported or exported goods contrary to any prohibitions imposed under Customs Act or any other law in force. Thus these provisions expand the mandate of DRI far beyond the violations of Customs Act and it is also required to directly or indirectly implement numerous related statutes like The Wildlife Protection Act, Food Safety and Standards Act, The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, NDPS Act, Arms Act, WMD Act, Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, FEMA, SEZ Act, etc.
A. Protecting Economic Interest & National Interest
In the present globalized world, protecting and promoting economic interests is sovereign function of any State. The Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 (FTDR) is the key statute providing for restriction/prohibition of import/ export of goods in order to protect local industry or agriculture or to promote domestic trade and commerce. As per Section 3 (3) of FTDR “All goods to which any Order under sub-section (2) applies shall be deemed to be goods the import or export of which has been prohibited under section 11 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962) and all the provisions of that Act shall have effect accordingly.”
DRI has carried out this function very well and numerous cases have been booked based on notifications issued under
Section 3 of FTDR. Cases of current relevance touching lives of common man like seizure of PPE kits, gloves, sanitizers etc (when export was restricted), seizure of onions (when export restricted due to rising domestic prices), seizure of grams/ pulses (when import restricted to maintain domestic prices) etc. have been effected under Customs Act for violation of FTDR.
Further, Section 5 of FTDR provides for formulation and implementation of Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) by the Central Government. Innumerable commercial fraud cases involving huge amounts of revenue have been booked by DRI for violation of FTP.
Besides, cases of SCOMET violations (violation of FTDR, Section 14 C Catch –all controls) were booked by DRI for instance case against manufacturing and exporting defence-related electronic equipments worth crores of rupees.
A. ProtectingWildlife
Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 provides for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants. Import and export of wildlife articles/derivatives are either restricted or prohibited under the EXIM Policy. As a general trend, it is seen that wildlife is smuggled from under- developed countries to the developed countries where they fetch very high value. DRI has observed that wildlife is smuggled into as well smuggled out of India and it has booked a number of cases as evident from the figures in the table below.
70 SMUGGLING IN INDIA REPORT 2019-20