A stock of Orid Dhal (Undu / Black Lentil) which was illegally imported by declaring as Chickpeas to the Colombo Port Customs, was seized by a group of officials of the Customs Revenue Monitoring Division at the Orugodawatta Container Terminal, Customs Spokesman Sivali Arukgoda said.
The 20-feet long container containing these lentils has been imported from Chennai, India by a businessman residing in Maradana, Colombo recently (26).
Near the door of this container, 228 sacks of 30 kg of chickpeas were packed. Upon further inspection of the container, Customs officers found 574 sacks of Orid Dhal weighing 30 kg each.
The sacks contained 17,200 kg of Orid Dhal worth Rs.31 million.
The Customs Spokesman added that Sri Lanka would have lost a tax revenue of Rs.5.2 million if the container was released from the port.
The Sri Lanka Customs has summoned the importer and carried out further investigations.