KHYBER
Tires Smuggling from Afghanistan to Pakistan via Torkham has been carried out here at Pak-Afghan sharing border, Torkham.
The sources informed that scores of Afghanistan returned truck drivers involved in the smuggling activity.
Instead of bringing to an end the unlawful practice, custom officials and other security agencies personnel were accused of collecting illicit money from the smugglers.
Abdullah, driver of an Afghanistan bound trailer said that before approaching the border, they removed two, four or more wheels from the middle and back rows of their vehicles.
Delivering consignments somewhere in Afghanistan, they fixed new tires on carriage from the dealers in the Afghanistan side of the border, he added.
Following delivery in Peshawar, they were paid five thousand rupees per pair tire carrying charges, he added.
He maintained that due to price hiking in petrol commodities, the additional money in form of the tires fare was enough to meet their expenses.
Javed, another Afghan driver, blamed that they carried out the illegal business with support of officials at the border.
The Frontier Corp (FC) soldiers and custom officials received five hundred rupees each per truck at the border. Similarly in Torkham import terminal custom officials collected five hundred rupees and import exit point at the Michni checkpoint they had to pay five hundred rupees more to the custom officials besides police personnel at Parang Sam check post, Jamrud, got an extra five hundred rupees.
Approximately forty to sixty percent of truckers engaged in tire smuggling, the driver added and said a truck smuggled four to ten tires at one time.
Data provided by the customs official at the import exit point, Michni check post vehicles ranging from 120 to 240 daily crossed into Pakistan via Torkham, loaded different kinds of imported commodities.
One of tire dealers in Peshawar, Sartaj Khan said that various brands of tires range its price from one lakh thirty thousand rupees per pair to one lakh rupees available in the local market.
He maintained that a ten thousand to fifteen thousand rupees difference was noticed in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.
Price of the tires changed on a daily basis and it directly connected with the rise and fall of American Dollars, he added and said mostly tires existing in the market on different names were made in China.
He further said that due to high import duty, the dealers preferred to buy the commodity at a low rate, smuggled from across the border in Afghanistan.
When the custom official was contacted at the import exit point at Michni, he said that a number of trucks with smuggling tires had been taken into legal custody yet the illicit practice could not be curtailed.
A custom official informed that flaws in the custom law restrained them from taking legal action against it.
There was no such article in the custom regulations in the country to take out the unpaid custom duty tires of running vehicles, fixed across the border in Afghanistan, he opined.
