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TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SMUGGLER

Facts and Figures of the Biggest Business in Town

S. Bari in Dhaka
'LL giveyou two for ” I 400. that's my final
X offer." We are sitting tn a lean-to shack near Bangabazaar the table and floor tittered with sarees Very little light filters through the woven walls Several dealers crowd the tiny room. The business deals are quick and slick, speaking of years of practice One woman has arrived from Calcutta with ftf-teeen sarees. They kre
snapped up in as many minutes. taka 170 per piece. Just a few feet away, In the din of the market, the sarees go off the stands for 190 a piece. The low margin of profit is not a problem for Munshl, a seller of Indian sarees: "We sell so many every day that I can afford to keep the prices attractive to the buyer."
Does he sell Bangladesh-made sarees? "No." he smiles, "everybody wants Indian sarees." Not only does the customer think it is more chic to wear foreign-made clothes, sadly enough it's also cheaper. Money money money
That final word sums up the motives behind the widespread and near-open smuggling that is currently in practice and shows signs of unimpeded growth
Smuggling is now no longer a hide-and-seek operation: whole communities depend on it openly for a living. Economic and geographical circumstances have conspired to ag
gravate the situation. A new survey by the Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies, entitled "Illegal International Trade In Bangladesh"(authors Abul Ghafar. Mulnul Islam. Naushad Fatz), identifies major patterns tn smuggling and highlights the reasoning behind such ac tivities. as well as possible measures to counteract it
In an import-controlled economy such as ours, duties on foreign goods are steep, enough to annul a huge chunk of the profit. Traders cannot afford to legally Import tn the
quantities that the market demands. Customs duty and sales tax make legal Imports costly once they hit the shops. Smuggling sidesteps duty and fulfills the market's demands at the same time.
A relatively protectionist neighbour Implies a ready market for the goods transported through Bangladesh. The country has become the largest conduit of legal Import-Illegal export to India. Unemployment drives people to illegal trade, as carriers and middlemen. The risk is high, but so are the pay-offs, better than any legitimate job.
At the core of trade is profit, and in smuggling profit is breath-taking. The price of an Indian radio on the Indian side of the border Jumps by 108% on Bangladesh territory.
*The same variation Is 300% for sandalwood soap and 535% for glass bangles. In the other direction. Hilsa fish rise in value by 297% when smuggled to India. And if a Japanese sound system sells for taka 9.000 in Dhaka, the Calcutta buyer will spend the equivalent of 20,000 at least. Because of different production costs, smuggled Indian sugar can go for less than domestic sugar
Smuggled items are either agricultural goods, yarn and textiles, industrial goods, or raw materials The popular tm age of shady characters slinking through the night Is only a fraction of the truth. One electronics shopowner says."We
don't hide things tn suitcases, you know. We pay tax - but say I'm getting 500 stereo sets. I'll declare only 200. So the other three hundred are where I make maximum profit." The BIDS report confirms that this fake smuggling works through
misdeclaration and under-invoicing. Legitimate ports of entry are not above suspicion : in fact a large volume of smuggled goods enter through these ports. For every pumpkin stuffed with cotton sarees. there are ten 'baggage smugglers’, businessmen or returning migrants with undeclared taxable items in their suitcases. Garment companies provide another link: high quality material is Imported tax-free for the Industry, then leaked to the focal market and eventually even smuggled to India. In exchange. Indian cloth comes pouring tn.
Bengali Mafia
Smugglers, surprisingly, don't just carry anything at hand One cosmetic dealer's
bag had bottles of Estee Lauder and Christian Dior skincare products, all wrapped carefully in cloth. The cardboard packages were neatly folded, wait Ing to be reshaped and sold. "I only bring this kind of thing. That's what they want me to do. Some people bring anything they can get their hands on. But with cosmetics, you can sell the stuff for so much that you don't need hundreds of boxes." The shopkeeper he was visiting bought thirty of this, forty of that "My clients ask for this cream, so I make sure I have It" But is there a steady supply? "Oh yes. if I sell ten today, tomorrow twenty will arrive from abroad."
The man with the bagful of bottles Is the most likely to get caught, not the man above him who pays him to bring the goods. At the top of the Illegal trade pyramid are big-city financiers, operating through agents, sub-agents, and carriers. Saleha, who brings medicine, oil, sarees and any other small items from the border towns to Dhaka, does not know the man who carries them across. "There Is somebody. But I just pick the stuff up at a friend's place. She told me it was good work, and it is. But I don't know the guy who coordinates It all. I Just do my part. In Dhaka, I drop the things off. I guess there's some man getting rich at the end of it all." There is. And he provides a living to thousands of Salehas, for whom smuggling Is more rewarding than breaking bricks.
These boss operators have the right connections with political power, policy-makers, and law-enforcement agencies. Through agents at various levels and areas, and through a systematic buying-out of the bureaucrats along the way. the smuggling gang has emerged as the most potent force in the trade. Individuals smuggle on a much smaller scale than these mini-Mafias. The person who physically carries the goods across a border Is most frequently the one to get caught. But like any gang, the small fty
know very little. The benefits of gang-controlled smuggling are lower risks for the boss, a lower cost of source-to-desti-natlon transport, and a regular flow of merchandise. The system works through a balance of trust and intimidation. Bribes are fixed beforehand, and rates established for different ranks of officials. Local Inhabitants are held hostage to the gangs, economically as well as physically.
What's hot, what's not
Goods from South-East Asia as well as other sub-continen-tal countries arrive off the Southeastern Coast, near Chittagong and such infamous
places as Anwara, where even smugglers dare not step. Increasingly. Golden Triangle drugs are entering Bangladesh through this sector. Narcotics are consumed locally as well as smuggled abroad. On the Eastern border with Tripura and Assam. Indian fruit and timber are traded for chicken and fish. This part of India being geographically Isolated from the rest, ft is cheaper for merchandise to travel through Bangladesh: a heaven-sent incentive for smuggling. The long border with West Bengal ds a hotbed of illegal trading.
and most of the local population Is involved In it. A fairly developed communications system and the industrial belt of West Bengal contribute to the thriving business. From women to radios, from fish to pornographic literature, almost anything crosses this border.
Down South, near the Sundarban network of canals. 80% of the country's legal export takes place. When the export-carriers make their return journey, they are laden with illegal Imports.
Spices, sugar, cattle, machinery, cosmetics and crockeries are the major Illegal imports. Exports through the back door are electronics, ftsh, Jute and ready-made garments. Bangladesh also serves as a conduit for gold smuggling.
Who they are
A smuggler is a woman crossing the border at night with Indian magazines and Keo-Karpin hair oil (sold in Dhaka for twice the Indian price) in her bags. A smuggler is the doctor selling banned foreign medicine to you. A smuggler is the man with a
knife who glares at you threateningly as you interrogate his associates on how they got their cigarettes. The man driving around Gulshan In a car bought with money from Illegal machine parts is a smuggler. The housewife going to Calcutta to buy sarees and selling them to her friends is a smuggler.
Though till a while ago surveys of smugglers' backgrounds showed them to be involved tn other professions as well, nowadays there is open avowal. High unemployment and attractive returns have made smuggling a near-legitimate business. Moral stigmas attached to it are no longer relevant In areas where one is lucky to make a living at all.
Smuggling activities are financed mainly by smuggling itself. though there is merchant capital backing and local moneylending. Most transactions are made in cash. The dominant currency in IndoBangladesh smuggling or in trade through the seaports is the taka.
Where have all the law-en-forcengone?
Less than effective law-enforcement encourages smug giing The proximity of Large ■cate smuggglers to the centres of power strengthen I legal trade. Though moot customs officials are honest, the few who are not amply suffice for smugglers bribes In some law-enforcement and other government agencies border postings are much sought after because of the substantial kickbacks from focal opera-
Three agencies are concerned with illegal Interna Uonal trade. The customs is in formal charge of all ports of entry, as sei as intelligence A short trip to Benapole proves what a joke border controls can be. The pohee can arrest smugglers, pursue cases and carry out raids. Few people are ever actually sent Io jail after these raids The third agency, the Bangladesh Rifles. has a deterrent rote to play tn cross border Illegal trade
A customs officer notes. "Everyone thinks we are all for sale, totally corrupt Well there to a tot of corruption, but we re not ail out lor quick money Besides smuggling to profitable As long as it s prof Mabte. the toughest controls cannot stop if And while peopte have no alternative equivalent income, they will turn to Illegal trade
threaten unity of purpose Customs complain about the B°R who 1B return complain
Raids are oftJTo^anized to
** surprisingly only the fewer links tn the chain are the carriers
uai basis. Raids usually follow a mtounderetanding in the bribe system or a public pro nouncement । by ^the^govern worth Taka 1M.24 crore were
seized in 1989. The seizure represents a fraction of the real money involved in this business
Pros and cons
The revenue lost by the government through smug giing is not compensated for by the vast amounts of money acquired by the individuals In voived. because the wealth generated by smuggling activities does not go into construe five use. In addition, local in dustries suffer tn the unfair competition with foreign goods
Because smugglers will import an item from the easiest obtainable source, they are not necessarily buying from the cheapest This to economically unsound. Capital flight out of on already weakened country to
aggravated by the smuggling trade And finally, smuggling is the single most important source of black money in Bangladesh
But trade to one of the primary activities of any civilization. and smuggling is merely a symptom of classical economics. It supplies a demand at a maximum profit. Economic rationale has little to do with a moral stand, which to what the law Is based on In fact, with neighbouring countries ready markets. Bangladesh makes a huge profit from this illegal act.
"Mayer deya mota kapor*'
In pre-Partition days, the Independence movement urged people to wear home-spun cloth That mentality has all but disappeared. If you go
looking for a Bangladeshi product. Indian. Thal, and Japanese goods are thrust at you. Even If a piece of clothing Is patently Bengali, the sales man insists foreign maal'. The shopper shuns domestic prod ucts: part show-off. part real economic reasoning, this is nonetheless a terrifying prospect for the country An educated attitude to needed to reduce the demand for Imported goods
In administrative measures, experts suggest valuation mon Ito ring to check wild price variations. Raids should strike at all levels, especially at the top of smuggling gangs Goods languishing in captured godowns, and cases gathering dust in court cannot function as effective deterrents. Navy and BDR patrolling facilities and equipment are in need of improvement
But all administrative measures are doomed to failure un til and unless the economic Incentive to smuggle is re-
moved. Devaluation of the taka will make Indian goods more costly and less profitable to bring in. It will also reduce capital flight out of the country. Lower taxes on legitimate imports will make legal trade more attractive. Bilateral nego nations with neighbouring na ttons would be advantageous to all parties But most urgently, unemployment must be drastically dealt with. Workshops and craft-training centres do not offer the lucrative benefits of smuggling What Is needed to alternative employment that really to alternative
The odd two-tn-one or cot ton saree to the outer symptom of a thriving underground economy where children and medicines become mere ob jecto of barter It to not only our economy that Is at peril. It to our national values
S Bari to a Feature Writer of The Daily Star