Junta inspection teams in Mon State are hunting down and confiscating Thai-made goods being stockpiled in warehouses and sold in grocery shops and stores.
The crackdown started happening after the junta second-in-command, General Soe Win, ordered the seizure of all goods illegally imported into Myanmar without an import licence. So-far the crackdown on illegally imported goods has only been happening in Mon State.
A source close to warehouse operators in Zaygyo Ward of Mawlamyine City, the capital of Mon State, said: "Junta inspection teams are targeting and confiscating [illegally imported] Thai-made goods, but we don’t know the details of their policies and procedures. Before, the authorities themselves allowed the import of Thai-made goods [if bribes were paid at the border] and their storage in warehouses. Now, when the goods arrive [at the warehouses], they confiscate them, load them onto trucks, and take them away.”
As a result of the seizures and inspections warehouse operators are urgently relocating illegally imported stockpiled Thai-made goods, whilst others have bribed junta inspectors to be allowed to keep their businesses running.
The people of Mon State and the rest of southern Myanmar depend on Thai imports for many of their needs, including basic food, consumer goods, medicines and cosmetics. More than half of these are illegally imported and the seizures could result in Thai produced goods disappearing from the market, potentially causing shortages. A concerned Malamyine City resident said that if that happened prices could rise steeply.
He said to IMNA: "Commodity prices are already high, and this crackdown could make things worse. The junta targets businessmen and traders, but in reality, it's the public who suffers. Businessmen won’t take losses—they'll just raise prices, and the public will end up paying more.”
Some merchants have criticised the crackdown saying it is no more than a way for junta personnel to extract more bribes from them in Mon State.
Firstly, merchants have to bribe customs officials at the border to allow Thai goods in without a licence. Now, if their goods are found during the crackdown searches of warehouses the merchants face losing them or paying more bribes.
At the border the junta does not arrest traders, or prevent, or block goods from being illegally imported from Thailand, as long as the relevant bribes are paid. But now, illegally imported goods are being confiscated when they get to warehouses in Mon State, unless a bribe has been paid and arrangements made in advance, according to a trader who imports goods into Mon State via the border town of Payathonzu (Three Pagodas Pass) in Karen State.
He said: "It’s still possible to import goods by paying tolls at the border checkpoints. Once the goods are delivered to warehouses in Mon State, those who have made arrangements with the police and soldiers in the respective towns can easily bring them into the town. However, if an issue arises, the soldiers and police will notify their contacts not to bring the goods into town until it's safe. As a result, the goods may be delayed outside the town until they receive the all-clear.”
Most Thai-made goods entering Mon State are primarily imported through the Three Pagodas Pass border crossing to Payathonzu Town on the Thailand-Myanmar border.
