The Delhi customs last week claimed to have busted a gang engaged in across the border smuggling in ball-bearings between India and Nepal.
Customs sources said the operation is used to finance extremists in the north-east. At least three cases of ball-bearing smuggling have come to the notice of the department, the sources said.
Last week, a truck carrying ball-bearings was seized at Lucknow by the custom authorities. The goods had been sent to Nepal after being offloaded at the Calcutta port, where the customs authorities had issued a certificate of transit declaration (CTD) for the goods to be sent to Nepal.
There are two ways in which the bearings are being smuggled. After goods meant for Nepal land at the Calcutta port and are sent to Nepal in a container with a CTD certificate, they are emptied midway and filled with bearings in false bottom trucks. These trucks have earlier gone unnoticed at the customs check points.
Nepal being a land-locked country, the certificate of transit declaration is a must for goods meant for transportation to the country.
The smuggling of ball-bearings is helped by the fact that zero duty is levied on the sale of the same between Nepal and India.
An official said, a cursory glance at the demand for bearings in Nepal and their imports could give commerce ministry officials an idea of the scale of smuggling. According to rough estimates, he said, the imports into Nepal were over 100 times that of the requirement. The customs authorities had earlier carried out two similar seizures.
