Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Director General Customs Intelligent and Investigation Faiz Ahmad Chaudhary on Friday told media that during the past ten days, they have foiled bids and seized smuggled and fake cigarettes worth Rs 303 million being smuggled from Afghanistan and Iran.
During a briefing to reporters, Director General of Customs Intelligence, General Faiz Ahmad Chaudhary, stated that the intelligence staff had initiated nationwide crackdowns on the smuggling of foreign-made and counterfeit cigarettes, in accordance with the directives of the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Asim Ahmad.
He said during the past ten days they conducted raids in border areas with Afghanistan and Iran including Torkham, Peshawar, Mardan, D I.Khan, Quetta and Karachi.
Faiz Ahmad said customs officials recovered smuggled and fake cigarettes worth Rs43.9 million in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said on the basis of intelligent reports the smugglers had smuggled fake and foreign-made cigarettes from Afghanistan and Iran.
The brand names of the sized cigarettes were included Royal, Business, Pine, Dunhill, Bensen and Hedges, M7, Platinum, Peed Blue Mond, Elegance, Milano, Knightsbridge, Hi-Lite, Marlboro Gold and GB Classic Virginia UK, he said.
He said the largest cache of fake smuggled cigarettes was seized in raids conducted in Balochistan where Rs114.2 million of foreign-made cigarettes were seized.
The customs official said during a crackdown in Punjab the customs Intelligence team seized Rs75.3 million worth of smuggled and fake cigarettes.
Faiz added that during the current year, they have so far seized fake and smuggled cigarettes worth Rs1324 million.
The Chairman of FBR, Asim Ahmad, and the Director General of Customs Intelligence, Faiz Ahmad Chaudhary, commended the efforts of Customs Intelligence teams in Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Gwadar, Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar. They acknowledged that despite limited human resources and logistical support, Customs Intelligence was effectively working towards eliminating the issue of smuggling in general and the smuggling of cigarettes in particular.
