this story originally appeared in on jan 18 2013 new delhi revenue and excise intelligence officials have detected rs 2600crore tax and duty evasion in the quarter to december data released by the directorate general of central excise intelligence dgcei and the directorate general of revenue intelligence dri agencies under the finance ministrys revenue department pegs the evasion in service tax central excise and customs duty at rs 267051 crore of this over rs 880 crore has been recovered the agencies said on thursday while unpaid service tax amounts to rs 1700 crore customs and excise duty evasion is pegged at rs 70117 crore and rs 26880 crore respectively during the quarter the dri seized contraband worth rs 50439 crore and detected 143 cases of duty evasion its directorgeneral najib shah said in a statement sixtytwo persons were arrested under the customs act 1962 during the quarter the dri recovered rs 36934 crore in customs duties compared with rs 36204 crore in the yearago period the statement said adding that the agency is probing cases of misuse of exemption notifications and undervaluation of imports which together amount to over rs 1000 crore in customs duty evasion in the yearago quarter the agency had detected duty evasion of rs 172 crore and recovered rs 85 crore according to shah 13 preventive detentions were made under the conservation of foreign exchange and prevention of smuggling activities act 1974 the trend is indicative of illegal trade in gold not only by way of outright smuggling but also through commercial manipulations including misuse of the free trade agreement with thailand shah said other trends detected include influx of fake currency from bangladesh heroin from pakistan hashish from nepal miscellaneous contraband like cigarettes branded shoes and ozonedepleting refrigerant gases from china and highend watches from europe the dri also detected cases of undervaluation of imports and overvaluation of exports undervaluation and misuse of exemptions relating to import of aircraft by nonscheduled operators money laundering by way of overinvoicing of imported drawings or designs and illegal export of urea the dgcei detected 315 cases of service tax evasion involving rs 1700 crore its directorgeneral j chaturvedi said of this about rs 445 crore has either been recovered or commitment for payment secured