Penalties on persons :

The personal penalty is a heavy punishment. The entire Customs Act being in the nature of an indirect tax, no person can be penalised unless he is known to have personally committed the offence with full knowledge of the illegality of his action. However, this element of mens rea would defeat the very objective of deterrent action against persons involved in smuggling. Therefore, the persons involved in smuggling have been categorised into two, namely,

1. those directly involved in doing any act or omission which legally constitutes smuggling and

2. others, who wittingly or unwittingly get themselves involved in the various stages of smuggling.