Vice-Chairman of State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win Addresses at Coordination Meeting (2/2022) of Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee

Vice-Chairman of the State Administration Council (SAC) Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win, in his capacity as Chairman of the Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee delivered an address at the coordination meeting (2/2022) of Illegal Trade Eradication Steering Committee which was held at the Ministry of Commerce in Nay Pyi Taw on 28 April. During the meeting, the Vice-Senior General stressed the following points:

• The Chairman of the SAC gave guidance “to effectively speed up the illegal trade as illegal trade still exists”. Moreover, he instructed that “emphasis must be placed on the supervision of border trade not to emerge the illegal trade during his Kengtung trip in Shan State (East)”.
• Illegal trade worth of estimated value of K6.324 billion was seized in 298 cases in January 2022, K3.150 billion in 247 cases in February and K3.430 billion in 301 cases in March 2022.
• After the meeting (1/2021), illegal trade volume worth of estimated value of K12.904 billion was seized in 846 cases from January to March 2022. Moreover, illegal trade volume worth estimated value of K1.815 billion was seized in 501 cases at the same period of last year. Therefore, the seized volume of illegal trade was exceeding K11.089 billion in 345 cases rather than the corresponding period of last year.
• In comparison with the whole previous year, as the illegal trade volume worth of estimated value of K8.459 billion was seized from January to December 2021, K4.445 billion more worth of seizures of illegal trade volume could be made in three months.
• Among the seizures, there were restricted goods, goods without custom duty, explosives, in addition to, raw chemicals, narcotic drugs and unlicensed vehicles.
• Region and state anti-illegal trade special forces and OSS combined forces are to report to the steering committee if they have any difficulty. And coordination will be sought as necessary.
• Service personnel are required to have knowledge about directives, SOPs, laws, rules and procedures in the anti-illegal trade process.
• As those who involved in the illegal trade activities were affected by the anti-illegal trade, they want to take revenge on staff involved in combating illegal trade and try to harm the staff directly or indirectly by employing various ways and means. Therefore, it is necessary for head of departments to take security measures for them by treating staff who are performing state duties as their family members.
• Concerning foods, drugs and cosmetics that are harmful to public health, Department of Food and Drug Administration and relevant ministries will carry out to speed up the implementation of policies in line with working procedure at the introduction and circulation ceremony of the National-Level Food Safety policy which was held at the MICC-II.
• Awareness must be raised on a broader scale for the people to know about sending complaints about illegal trade to the authorities.
• During the period from January to April 2022, there were 29 cases tipped off by the public which are 22 seizures of case, five cases based on wrong information, one case in which action was taken late and one on-going case. Therefore, it was found that 76 percent of the cases tipped off by the public were actual illegal trading activities.

The meeting was attended by union ministers, deputy ministers, members of Nay Pyi Taw Council, permanent secretaries, directors general and officials.

• After the meeting (1/2021), illegal trade volume worth of estimated value of K12.904 billion was seized in 846 cases from January to March 2022. Moreover, illegal trade volume worth estimated value of K1.815 billion was seized in 501 cases at the same period of last year. Therefore, the seized volume of illegal trade was exceeding K11.089 billion in 345 cases rather than the corresponding period of last year.
• Service personnel are required to have knowledge about directives, SOPs, laws, rules and procedures in the anti-illegal trade process.
• As those who involved in the illegal trade activities were affected by the anti-illegal trade, they want to take revenge on staff involved in combating illegal trade and try to harm the staff directly or indirectly by employing various ways and means. Therefore, it is necessary for head of departments to take security measures for them by treating staff who are performing state duties as their family members.
• Awareness must be raised on a broader scale for the people to know about sending complaints about illegal trade to the authorities.
• During the period from January to April 2022, there were 29 cases tipped off by the public which are 22 seizures of case, five cases based on wrong information, one case in which action was taken late and one on-going case. Therefore, it was found that 76 percent of the cases tipped off by the public were actual illegal trading activities.