Myanmar’s cash-strapped regime is planning to sell confiscated goods to reduce the budget deficit.
On Monday, deputy junta chief Soe Win called on officials to take good care of illegal goods to minimize losses during storage and take rapid legal action to allow items to be sold off to generate revenue.
Soe Win, who chairs the junta’s Illegal Trade Eradication Committee, instructed ministries and state and regional governments to tackle illegal trade, saying it created instability and encouraged criminal activities and funded terrorist organizations, in reference to resistance groups.
Most items seized since the committee was established in 2022 were unlicensed vehicles and motorbikes. Other goods included industrial machinery, phones and building materials.
Since the committee’s formation in 2022, the authorities say they made more than 22,000 confiscations of goods worth more than 575 billion kyats. It said March was the busiest month for confiscations.
Soe Win on Monday ordered tighter checks and increased confiscations, saying smuggling was rising while official border trade was halted by conflict.
A trader with Thailand told The Irrawaddy: “The authorities once seized 362 vehicles in a single day. It is hard to obtain an import permit, so illegal trade continues.
“High taxes and checkpoint fees make it challenging to trade legally. Even after paying taxes, junta checkpoints may seize our goods and extort money. If you can’t pay or don’t have connections, they will take everything.”
Traders have to pay tens of millions of kyats in fines at the junta’s Myanma Economic Bank to get back a truck seized by junta officials or police.
A trader from Kawthaung on the Thai border in Tanintharyi Region said: “The authorities conduct around five seizures per month to meet their quotas. The customs department has strict confiscation targets.
“The confiscated goods that the authorities say they will auction are confiscated vehicles that have not been reclaimed by traders. The proceeds will go to the junta budget.”
The regime imposes tight checks on the Kawthoung-Ranong border and seizes goods worth between 300 million and 1 billion kyats per month, according to business sources.
