Duty-assigned staff members in eradicating illegal trade need to be free from corruption: Vice-Senior General

Staff members need to inform nearby region and state governments or relevant military command headquarters about their difficulties in time to take action against offenders under the law, said Chairman of the Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee State Administration Council Vice-Chairman Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win at the meeting 2/2023 of the steering committee at the Ministry of Commerce in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday afternoon.
Speaking on the occasion, the Vice-Senior General said that illegal trade is a hindrance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises which lose the capability to compete in the market. The commodities which were imported without tax payment hindered to products of MSMEs. If the action cannot be taken against illegally imported commodities, MSMEs will face difficulties in their development.
Seizures in February 2023 of illegally imported goods in 477 cases were valued at over K12 billion, K4.63 billion (61 cases) more than in January. Likewise, the value of seizures in February 2023 was K8.86 billion (230 cases) more than that in the same period.
The Vice-Senior General stressed the need to generally review that the larger volume and amount of seizure indicated the larger volume of illegal trade.

Hence, he noted that it is necessary to raise the momentum of the eradication of illegal trade which strongly affects the economic development of the State.
Those who are engaged in illegal trade take advantage of weak points in trade policy, orders, directives and procedures, impossibility to check all commodities from the trucks and security restrictions.
MACSS System of the Customs Department and Myanmar Tradenet 2.0 and QR Code system help ensure the smooth flow of commodities and help take action against illegal trade. System and staff must be deployed in harmony in conducting inspection tasks. If so, it will effectively eradicate illegal trade.
The Vice-Senior General noted that an e-lock system must be applied for curbing illegal trade by using containers for the transport of commodities as much as possible. It is necessary to discuss the setting limited time for an educative period not to distribute the illegally imported goods to wholesale and retail shops as well as shopping malls and a period for taking action against the offenders.
With regard to the reviews of the Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee, the seizures from January 2022 to date were overloaded commodities and trafficking the commodities mixed with the goods which were not mentioned in the import declaration. Hence, duty-assigned staff members need to carefully check the commodities with the use of experience.
It can be seen that some businesspersons relied on ethnic armed organizations in passing the checkpoints to carry their illegal trade commodities. Hence, staff members need to inform nearby regional and state governments or relevant military command headquarters about their difficulties in time to take action against offenders under the law.
The Vice-Senior General pointed out that both governments need to coordinate the eradication of illegal trade not to pass the illegal commodities to other countries and not to enter illegal goods into the mother country. He also urged staff to observe good ways and means of other countries in eradicating the illegal trade.
The Vice-Senior General stressed that the duty-assigned staff members in eradicating illegal trade need to be free from corruption. Those related to the illegal trade will face action in any way. They all are to have security awareness and conscience and make preparations for security measures.
The Vice-Senior General unveiled that businesspersons will be restricted to use containers in trading, applying modern technology, negotiating with neighbouring countries and checking illegally imported commodities in the market so as to reduce illegal trade.
Secretary of the steering committee Deputy Minister U Nyunt Aung reported on accomplishments over the minutes of the meeting 1/2023 and undertakings of the steering committee. Department officials read the letters presented to the meeting 2/2023.
Union Minister General Mya Tun Oo, U Win Shein and U Aung Naing Oo, Deputy Minister Maj-Gen Aung Lin Tun and officials discussed the eradication of illegal trade. The leader of the office staff of the steering committee reported on the draft decisions of the meeting 2/2023.
After coordinating the reports and discussions, the Vice-Senior General gave a concluding remark. — MNA/TTA

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