Page 105 - SMUGGLING IN INDIA REPORT FOR 2020-2021

Overview
Trade in illicit goods poses a major challenge for international law enforcement community as well as a huge risk to global public health and safety. Illicit production and trade in pharmaceuticals, counterfeiting, piracy, adulteration as well as smuggling of products to evade taxes impinge on the mandate of the government to protect the interests of public health and safety. The economic impact of illicit trade is also immense, with 3% of global GDP expected to be lost to illicit activities such as counterfeiting, smuggling and tax leakage.
The trade in counterfeit goods, such as medicines, toys, foodstuff, etc. are silently killing people while criminal networks rake in profits. Customs and other law enforcement agencies have a pivotal role in checking this kind of trade. The mandate of Customs unequivocally requires goods imported into or exported
outside the country, to comply with a number of safety, health and environmental rules, which protect people and the ecosystem as a whole. This role, in turn, spans across a variety of policy domains ranging from product safety, health rules, animal/plant welfare, sanitary phytosanitary and environmental requirements to protocols, prerequisites and prohibitions governing shipments of different types of waste etc.
DRI has been at the forefront, discharging the diligent exercise of this mandate, efficaciously juxtaposing the provisions of the Customs Act with those of the Allied Acts like COTPA, FSSAI, Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 etc. and enforcing them. That the efforts of DRI towards protecting public health and safety met with significant successes would manifest from the following.
CHAPTER 5: PYBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY: EMERGING CONCERNS 59