The mobile wing of the excise and taxation department, Punjab, seized 1,591 mobile phones of Nokia make on the Zirakpur-Shimla highway in SAS Nagar district on Friday night.
The mobile phones worth Rs 25 lakh were being transported in a Toyata Innova car bearing registration number HR-62-4535 that too without bills.
Excise and taxation officer Abhishek Duggal said, “We got a tip-off that an SUV bearing Haryana number was taking mobile phones from Ludhiana to Delhi. In order to skip the sales tax barrier in Lalru, the car driver had changed his route. We laid a trap on the Zirakpur-Shimla highway and during checking found that nearly 1,591 smart phones of Nokia company. On asking the bills, the car occupant failed to produce the bills.”
Duggal added that one of the occupants Rakesh Kumar, a resident of Delhi, was transporting these phones from Ludhiana to Delhi. He was to take the mobile phones to one Shiva traders in Delhi.
“We will be imposing penalty of 50% of value of goods under the Punjab value-added tax,” Duggal said.