Government called for the crack-down on illegal border trading at Kachin, Shan, Mon, Kayah and Kayin State which are bordered with China and Thailand

The government has begun an organised crack-down on illegal border trade at Kachin, Shan, Mon, Kayah and Kayin, which border China and Thailand, after orders were given to the relevant ministries to establish special task forces for the purpose, vice president U Myint Swe said at the (UMFCCI) on August 24.

Arrangements are also being made for similar operations to take place in Tanintharyi region in the south, near Thailand, and Rakhine State, which shares the border with Bangladesh in the north.

“Drug trafficking has been prominent in Rakhine state and must be controlled and stopped. We have already started preparations to crack down on illegal trade activities there,” U Myint Swe said. 

U Than Myint, minister for the Ministry of Commerce, said illegal smuggling of goods into Myanmar via the country’s borders has increased with better transport options and unguarded routes. 

Currently, most vehicles enter Myanmar from Thailand, but there are also many illegal trading routes at the Myanmar-China border along northern Shan State, such as the 105th Mile trading zone in Muse, according to customs officials.  

As a whole, illegal border trade has been the bane of the Myanmar economy for decades. Traders who smuggle goods ranging from beer to electronics into the country without going through the official channels do not pay taxes for their ware and that has made it extremely difficult for legit businesses to stay competitive. For example, locally produced beer is taxed at a rate of 40 percent, yet illegal importers regularly get away with paying no tax at all.

U Min Aung, assistant director at the supervision and legal taxation team for the Shan border gates, told The Myanmar Times earlier this month that the amount of illegal trade could be at least double that of legal trade volumes, based on his estimates. Currently, no data on the exact volume of illegal trade taking place is available. 

One of the reasons illegal trade has proliferated in Myanmar is failure to clamp down on such activities by the authorities. 

U Min Aung said the main reason illegal trade is still taking place is that civil employees are not coordinating their work properly and corruption is rampant. “Instead of cooperating, departments are fighting one another for the right to carry out various responsibilities, so in the long-term there can be no development,” he said. 

Now, orders have come directly from the State to clamp down on the illegal border trade. “Cooperation between regions and states as well as government departments to take preventive measures against illegal and counterfeit goods has commenced and we are starting to see some improvements,” U Myint Swe said.

(The Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/govt-calls-crack-down-illegal-border-trading.html )

​