A total of 36.1 million cigarettes believed to be counterfeit have been seized at Laem Chabang Port in Chon Buri, the Customs Department revealed yesterday.
The consignment was likely part of a tax evasion plot that would have resulted in the state losing at least 300 million baht in revenue, it added.
The cigarettes were found in four containers falsely declared to be imported products awaiting to be re-exported to Malaysia, said Kulis Sombatsiri, director-general of the department .
Found in two containers were a total of 21.6 million cigarettes carrying the SAAT brand that were declared to have been produced in Vietnam and imported into Thailand from Singapore, said Mr Kulis.
Seized in the other two containers were 14.5 million cigarettes with the U2 brand declared to have been produced in and imported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he said.
All were imported under an import tax privilege in which the cigarette import tax is waived for certain brands imported for re-export purposes via the Chalung free trade zone industrial estate in Songkhla province, adjacent to Malaysia, he said.
But a check with Malaysian authorities showed no request was submitted to import these cigarettes into Malaysia, he said.
It is suspected these cigarettes were meant to be smuggled into Malaysia as well as sold illegally in Thailand's border areas, he said. Further checks showed the trademarks used on the seized cigarettes appeared to be fake, he added.